Intel has retained its semiconductor lead in 2015, while Qualcomm slipped in global ranking for chipset makers based on 2015 revenue.
Intel increased its semiconductor revenue to $51.42 billion in 2015 from $49.96 billion in 2014.
Samsung increased its semiconductor revenue to $40.16 billion from $37.09 billion.
The global semiconductor revenue of Qualcomm fell to $16.50 billion from $19.29 billion.
MediaTek’s semiconductor revenue fell to $6.65 billion from $7.02 billion.
Semiconductor revenues dipped 2 percent to $347.3 billion in 2015 from $354.3 billion in 2014, according to IHS Inc.
The drop in revenue in the global semiconductor market follows growth of 8.3 percent in 2014 and 6.4 percent in 2013.
“Weak results last year signal the beginning of what is expected to be a three-year period of declining to stagnant growth for semiconductor revenues,” said Dale Ford, vice president and chief analyst at IHS Technology.
Overall semiconductor revenue growth will limp along at roughly 2.1 percent growth compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2015 and 2020, according to the latest information from the IHS Semiconductors Service.
Current technology, economic, market and product trends suggest that sometime between 2020 and 2022 new products will come to market that will enable a significant level of growth in semiconductor revenues.
Intel retained its number one ranking in 2015, after acquiring Altera, which allowed the company to offset declining processor revenues and achieve 2.9 percent overall growth in 2015.
Qualcomm slipped to number four in the rankings as its revenues fell 14.5 percent, because the company’s 2015 acquisition of CSR was not enough to counter declining revenues in the wireless markets.
Infineon’s acquisition of International Rectifier enabled it to jump to number 12 in 2015.
Avago Technologies continues its acquisition activity with its purchase of Broadcom. Broadcom is already ranked at number nine in 2015. The combined revenues of the two companies would place them at number five overall.
ON Semiconductor’s acquisition of Fairchild Semiconductor should boost it up two notches in the rankings.
Semiconductor revenues for data processing, wired communications and consumer electronics all declined.
Automotive electronics and industrial electronics grew less than 1 percent.
Wireless communications grew 3 percent.
Wireless communications logic application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and analog ASICs both grew 30 percent, while radio-frequency (RF) small signal transistors, wired communications logic ASICs and wireless communications application-specific standard products (ASSPs) grew between 10 percent and 20 percent.
