Chasing Intel
Samsung Electronics is eyeing the top spot in the global semiconductor market, as its system semiconductor business is showing an upward trend, following its lead in the semiconductor memory market.
According to market research firm HIS on June 8, Samsung turned over US$9.187 billion in the global semiconductor market in the first quarter of this year. The company’s market share rose to 11.5 percent, a nearly 1 percent year-on-year gain. Accordingly, the Korean firm narrowed the gap with Intel to 2.8 percent.
The Korean tech giant has maintained its position as the world’s largest computer memory chip maker so far this year. Sales of its semiconductor memory chips totaled US$5.882 billion in Q1 2014 with a 34 percent share, which helped the company widen the gap with Micron in the runner-up position with a 22.2 percent share to more than 10 percent.
Samsung’s sales in the system semiconductor business that had been outperformed by Intel and Qualcomm bounced back this year, which contributed to its overall good performance. The Korean firm reported US$2.935 billion in system semiconductor sales in Q1, which made its market share rise to 5.3 percent. Thanks to its good sales performance, the company was able to snatch third place from Texas Instruments with a 4.8 percent share in the global system semiconductor market, after years of remaining in the fourth spot.
As a result, the semiconductor industry thinks that Samsung could unseat Intel to become the world’s number one semiconductor supplier in a few years. To attain the goal, the Korean tech firm has been focusing on enhancing the competitiveness of its relatively weak system semiconductor business.