Narrowed Gap
With Samsung Electronics increasing its share of the global semiconductor market in the first quarter of this year, the Korean tech giant narrowed the gap with top-ranked semiconductor chip maker Intel in the market to the lowest.
According to market research firm IHS Technology on May 21, the top five companies are Intel with a 13.3 percent share, Samsung (11.2 percent), Qualcomm (5.2 percent), SK Hynix (5.1 percent), and Micron (4.5 percent). The gap between Intel and Samsung in the market is 2.1 percent, which is the lowest.
Among the top five, Samsung and SK Hynix were the only two companies with increased market share. Samsung's share rose by 0.5 percent in Q1 2015, compared to 10.7 percent from last year. The company turned over US$9.589 billion. SK Hynix posted US$4.347 billion in sales during the period, and thus its share increased by 0.6 percent compared to 4.5 percent from the previous year.
Three other companies saw their share decline or stay the same. Intel's share decreased by 0.8 percent from 14.1 percent in Q1 2014, and Qualcomm's share went down by 0.2 percent. Only the number for Micron was the same.
Texas Instruments was in sixth place with a 3.5 percent share, followed by Toshiba (2.8 percent), Broadcom (2.4 percent), STMicroelectronics (2.0 percent), and Infineon Technologies (1.9 percent).