Intel is reportedly on the verge of reversing a trend which saw Santa Clara’s dominant position in the global semiconductor market whittled away by aggressive competition from Samsung.
According to IHS analyst Dale Ford, Intel is set to sell $49.7 billion worth of semiconductors in 2011, up an impressive 23% from $40.4 billion in 2010. This will allow Intel to outgrow the overall semiconductor market and boost its share of the market to 15.9%, up from 13.2% in 2010.
”In a challenging year for the semiconductor market, Intel achieved success on all fronts, expanding its core microprocessor and memory businesses, while also capitalizing on a major acquisition,” Ford confirmed.
“This allowed the company to outgrow the market and expand its lead over its closest competitors, defying the impact of weak economic conditions and catastrophic natural disasters in Japan and Thailand.”
Intel currently generates the majority of its semiconductor revenue by selling microprocessors (MPU) and NAND flash memory – two of the hottest segments of the chip industry in 2011.
To be sure, these areas are set to generate double-digit revenue growth of between 15 and 20 percent this year. However, all other memory segments besides NAND flash suffered major contractions in 2011 – adversely impacting semiconductor suppliers that depend on sales of these devices.
Consequently, some of the biggest decreases will be suffered by memory suppliers, such as No. 8 Hynix Semiconductor Inc. of Korea, No. 9 Micron Technology Inc. of the United States and No. 15 Elpida Memory Inc. of Japan, whose revenue will fall by 14.2%, 17.3% and 40.2%, respectively.
