Gartner predicts that the share of total memory chip revenue in the total semiconductor market will be 33 per cent in 2019 and 34 per cent in 2020, higher than its 31 per cent share in 2017.
Four Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) — Huawei, Lenovo, BBK Electronics and Xiaomi — ranked in the top 10 semiconductor chip buyers in 2018, up from three in 2017.
Samsung Electronics and Apple remained the top two semiconductor chip buyers in 2018, representing 17.9 per cent of the total worldwide market, according to Gartner, Inc.
This is a 1.6 per cent decrease compared with the previous year. However, the top 10 OEMs increased their share of chip spending to 40.2 per cent in 2018, up from 39.4 per cent in 2017.
However, Samsung Electronics and Apple both significantly slowed the growth of their chip spending in 2018. Huawei increased its chip spending by 45 per cent, jumping in front of Dell and Lenovo to the third spot, said Masatsune Yamaji, senior principal analyst at Gartner.
Kingston Technology and Xiaomi enter top 10 list
Eight of the top 10 companies in 2017 remained in the top 10 in 2018, with Kingston Technology and Xiaomi replacing LG Electronics and Sony.
Xiaomi rose eight places to the 10th position, increasing its semiconductor spending by $2.7 billion in 2018, a 63 per cent growth year over year.
Table 1. Preliminary Ranking of Top 10 Companies by Semiconductor Design TAM, Worldwide, (Millions of Dollars)
| 2017 Ranking | 2018
Ranking |
Company | 2017 | 2018 | 2018 Market
Share (%) |
Growth (%) 2017-2018 |
| 1 | 1 | Samsung Electronics | 40,408 | 43,421 | 9.1 | 7.5 |
| 2 | 2 | Apple | 38,834 | 41,883 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| 5 | 3 | Huawei | 14,558 | 21,131 | 4.4 | 45.2 |
| 3 | 4 | Dell | 15,606 | 19,799 | 4.2 | 26.9 |
| 4 | 5 | Lenovo | 15,173 | 17,658 | 3.7 | 16.4 |
| 6 | 6 | BBK Electronics* | 11,679 | 13,720 | 2.9 | 17.5 |
| 7 | 7 | HP Inc. | 10,632 | 11,584 | 2.4 | 9.0 |
| 13 | 8 | Kingston Technology | 5,273 | 7,843 | 1.6 | 48.7 |
| 8 | 9 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | 6,543 | 7,372 | 1.5 | 12.7 |
| 18 | 10 | Xiaomi | 4,364 | 7,103 | 1.5 | 62.8 |
| Others | 257,324 | 285,179 | 59.8 | 10.8 | ||
| Total | 420,393 | 476,693 | 100.0 | 13.4 |
TAM = total available market
*BBK Electronics includes Vivo and OPPO
Note: Numbers may not add to totals shown because of rounding
Source: Gartner (February 2019)
Factors impacting the market
The continued market consolidation in the PC and smartphone markets had a significant impact on the semiconductor buyers’ ranking. The big Chinese smartphone OEMs, in particular, have increased their market domination by taking out or purchasing competitors. As a result, semiconductor spending by the top 10 OEMs increased significantly, and their share reached 40.2 per cent of the total semiconductor market in 2018, up from 39.4 per cent in 2017.
This trend is expected to continue, which will make it harder for semiconductor vendors to maintain high margins.
Another factor impacting the market was memory prices. While the DRAM average selling price (ASP) has been high in the past two years, it is now declining. However, the impact is limited, as OEMs will increase their memory content when the ASP declines and also invest in premium models.
Gartner predicts that the share of total memory chip revenue in the total semiconductor market will be 33 per cent in 2019 and 34 per cent in 2020, higher than its 31 per cent share in 2017.
“With the top 10 semiconductor chip buyers commanding an increasing share of the market, technology product marketers at chip vendors must allocate a majority of their resources to their top 10 potential customers,” said Yamaji.
He added, “It is crucial that they take advantage of the open budget that is available due to the weakening memory ASPs and encourage customers to use advanced chips or increase memory content.”
