News Article
Samsung Moves up Consumer Chip Rankings
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. nearly doubled its sales of consumer-electronics oriented semiconductors in 2004, using its broad chip portfolio to vault into the market's top ranks, according to iSuppli Corp.
The South Korean electronics giant in 2004 saw its consumer chip revenue expand to $2.1 billion, up 84.2 percent from $1.1 billion in 2003. Samsung advanced to the number-four rank among global sellers of consumer-electronics chips in 2004, up from 10th place in 2003. This put Samsung in the same league as the vertically integrated, Japanese consumer-electronics powerhouses that traditionally have dominated the market, i.e. Toshiba Corp., Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., which maintained their top-three positions in 2004. Table 1 presents iSupplis ranking of the top-10 suppliers of consumer-electronics semiconductors in 2004.
The table ranks companies by worldwide sales of semiconductors for all types of consumer-electronics products. Samsung is best known as a supplier of memory chips, and leads the world in sales of such devices. Indeed, much of the companys consumer-electronics-chip revenue growth in 2004 was due to a 109.4 percent rise in sales of memories to the segment, with its revenue in this area rising to $932 million, up from $445 million in 2003. However, Samsung also achieved robust sales growth in other semiconductor product lines, illustrating the companys drive to become a leader in the consumer-electronics market. Samsungs revenue from sales of general-purpose logic ICs for consumer-electronics products rose by 116.1 percent in 2004.
Looking at the markets for chips for specific consumer-electronics products, Samsung in 2004 made strong gains in sales of semiconductors for digital television sets, digital set-top boxes and digital still cameras. Samsung also held a commanding lead in sales of semiconductors for MP3 players, controlling 42.2 percent of revenue due to shipments of chips for its own MP3 player line and those of other manufacturers.
The table ranks companies by worldwide sales of semiconductors for all types of consumer-electronics products. Samsung is best known as a supplier of memory chips, and leads the world in sales of such devices. Indeed, much of the companys consumer-electronics-chip revenue growth in 2004 was due to a 109.4 percent rise in sales of memories to the segment, with its revenue in this area rising to $932 million, up from $445 million in 2003. However, Samsung also achieved robust sales growth in other semiconductor product lines, illustrating the companys drive to become a leader in the consumer-electronics market. Samsungs revenue from sales of general-purpose logic ICs for consumer-electronics products rose by 116.1 percent in 2004.
Looking at the markets for chips for specific consumer-electronics products, Samsung in 2004 made strong gains in sales of semiconductors for digital television sets, digital set-top boxes and digital still cameras. Samsung also held a commanding lead in sales of semiconductors for MP3 players, controlling 42.2 percent of revenue due to shipments of chips for its own MP3 player line and those of other manufacturers.
