Telecom Lead Team:
Devices major Apple has become the top customers for semiconductor customer in
2011.
Apple gained a much greater share of the smartphone
market, and its media tablet business was also highly successful in 2011. As a
result, Apple became the biggest customer of semiconductor chip vendors in
2011, climbing two places in the ranking, from third in 2010, according to
Gartner.
While DRAM prices fell drastically in 2011, and many PC
vendors decreased their total semiconductor demand accordingly, the success of
the MacBook Air enabled Apple to increase semiconductor chip demand even in its
PC business.
Recently, Strategy Analytics said Apps will be the
rage at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), as manufacturers are keen to cash
in on the more than 41 billion phone and tablet downloads in 2012.
Apple to dominate apps, earning more than 53% paid app download
revenue in 2012
The average selling price of paid downloads is declining
across every major platform, as competition heats up and devices move into
emerging markets. To offset this loss, storefronts, carriers, and developers
look to virtual goods, an industry which will quintuple in size from 2011 to
more than $1 billion in 2012.
Apple and Android look to take advantage of their
positions to retain developer interest, maintain a steady flow of high quality
apps, and keep consumers wedded to their ecosystems, according to Strategy Analytics.
According to Gartner, leading electronic equipment
manufacturers remained the center of the semiconductor world in 2011,
accounting for $105.6 billion of semiconductors on a design total available
market (TAM) basis. 35 percent of semiconductor vendors’ worldwide chip revenue,
according to Gartner, Inc. This represented a year-over-year increase of $1.8
billion, or 1.8 percent from 2010.
Design TAM represents the total silicon content in all
products designed by a certain electronic equipment manufacturer or in a
certain region, while purchasing TAM represents the total silicon content
purchased directly by a certain electronic equipment manufacturer or in a
certain region. Design TAM is a useful index for semiconductor vendors when
they are considering how to allocate their sales or field application engineer
resources by customer or region. Purchasing TAM is a useful index for
semiconductor vendors when they are considering how to establish an efficient
distribution network by customer or region.
“The major growth drivers in 2011 were smartphones,
media tablets and solid-state drives (SSDs). Those companies that gained share
in the smartphone market, such as Apple, Samsung Electronics and HTC, increased
their semiconductor demand, while those who lost market share in this segment,
such as Nokia and LG Electronics, decreased their semiconductor demand. Media
tablets were also a growth driver for the semiconductor market throughout
2011,” said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner.
Within the top 10 rankings, three companies were from the
Americas, three from Asia/Pacific, three from Japan and one from Europe, the
Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
