Samsung and Apple bought $57.9 billion of semiconductors in 2014
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"Samsung Electronics and Apple have topped the semiconductor consumption table for four consecutive years and their decisions have considerable technology and pricing implications for the whole semiconductor industry," said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner.
Lenovo significantly increased its semiconductor demand in 2014 with growth of 33.9 percent.
The top 10 companies bought $125.6 billion of semiconductors, to account for 37 percent of semiconductor chip vendors' worldwide revenue in 2014. This was up from $114.8 billion, accounting for 36.4 percent in 2013. The top 10 outperformed the semiconductor buying market and grew by 9.4 percent overall.
As a result of the stabilization of memory prices from 2013, eight companies among the top 10 increased their semiconductor demand in 2014. All of the top 10 companies in the design total available market (TAM) ranking for 2013 remained in the top 10 in 2014, although a number exchanged places.
Through mergers and acquisitions, fourth-place Lenovo significantly increased its semiconductor demand in 2014 with growth of 33.9 percent. With growth of 21.6 percent, Huawei climbed to No. 7 in 2014, up from No. 9 in 2013, while LG Electronics climbed to No. 9 in 2014, up from No. 10 in 2013, with growth of 15.9 percent. ■