August 24, 2007 – Fabless giant Qualcomm became the first fabless company to crack the top 10 chip supplier ranks in 2Q07, buoyed by its ascent in the wireless area, according to new data from iSuppli Corp.
Qualcomm, which was ranked just outside the top 10 in another analysts’ recent market overview (#13, just behind Infineon), enjoyed nearly 9% sales growth in 2Q, the highest of any of the top suppliers, even as global semiconductor revenue dipped 3.6% to $63.1B. The fabless firm also apparently has usurped longtime leader Texas Instruments as the top supplier of semiconductors for wireless devices, the analyst firm noted.
“Qualcomm is capitalizing effectively on the transition to 3G technology in the mobile handset market,” the firm noted, adding that legal issues with Broadcom and the International Trade Commission’s ban on US imports of some phones with Qualcomm chips probably won’t dent the company’s 3Q results.
While the fabless firm soared in 2Q, other well-known chip suppliers in Asia stayed grounded — Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix, Sony, and NEC all saw sales decline during the quarter, largely due to continued weakness in the DRAM sector. Hynix saw its sales drop nearly 23% vs. 1Q07, with a 29% decline in its DRAM revenue. Toshiba’s 19% sales decline was more broad-based, iSuppli noted, with declines “in every semiconductor segment the company competes in except NAND flash memory.”
With its quarterly sales cut by a third, Sony fell out of the top 10 list altogether, with “huge” declines in all its semiconductor segments, but particularly in its core consumer electronics business, which dropped nearly $600M during 2Q vs. 1Q.
Still, news out of Asia wasn’t all bad. Samsung managed to minimize the damage to a 2.5% decline in sales, as DRAM sales losses (-17%, $2.1B) were offset by NAND flash growth (19%, $1.4B).
And even though it too fell out of the top 10 rankings, NEC held its sales decline also to 2.5% (to $1.3B), mainly due to slow sales of display drivers, the analyst firm noted.
Semiconductor market share, 2Q07.
(Revenue in US $M)
Company (1q07 rank)……………2Q07……….vs. 1Q07 (% change)……….Market share %
Intel (1)…………………………………….7728………….7868….. (-1.78%)…………………12.25%
Samsung Electronics (2)…………….4716………….4835….. (-2.46%)…………………..7.48%
Texas Instruments (4)………………..3030………….2900….. (4.48%)……………………4.80%
Toshiba (3)……………………………….2510………….3109….. (-19.27%)………………..3.98%
STMicroelectronics (6)……………….2418………….2276….. (6.24%)……………………3.83%
Renesas Technology (8)…………….1985………….1948….. (1.90%)……………………3.15%
Hynix (5)…………………………………..1963………….2539….. (-22.69%)…………………3.11%
NXP (9)…………………………………….1472………….1427….. (3.15%)……………………2.33%
Qualcomm (14)………………………….1367………….1259….. (8.58%)……………………2.17%
Infineon Technologies (13.)…………1363………….1282….. (6.32%)……………………2.16%
Others……………………………………34,519……….35,975… (-4.05%)………………….54.73%
TOTAL MARKET………………..63,071……….65,418… (-3.59%)………………….100.0%
Source: iSuppli Corp.