Apple Propelled IC Growth to +60%/ +20%

My last blog (Semiconductor IC Sales +60% to +20% for 6 Companies) discusses large increase in semiconductor sales for some companies in first quarter of 2015.The driving force behind these large growth is Apple. Apple purchase more than $25B in 2014 (see table below). When Apple started diversifying its semiconductor sources it led to large impact on them. 

Table 1.Preliminary Ranking of Top 10 Companies by Semiconductor Design TAM, Worldwide, 2014 (Billions of Dollars)

2013 Ranking	2014 Ranking	Company	2013	2014	Growth (%) 2013-2014	Market Share (%) 2014
1	1	Samsung	30.6	32.1	5.1	9.4
2	2	Apple	23.5	25.8	9.8	7.6
3	3	HP	13.7	14.7	7.1	4.3
4	4	Lenovo	9.5	12.8	33.9	3.8
5	5	Dell	9.1	10.3	13.2	3.0
6	6	Sony	7.7	7.4	-2.8	2.2
9	7	Huawei	4.9	6.0	21.6	1.8
7	8	Cisco Systems	5.6	5.8	3.1	1.7
10	9	LG Electronics	4.7	5.5	15.9	1.6
8	10	Toshiba	5.5	5.3	-4.0	1.5
		Others	200.2	214.2	7.0	63.0
		Total	315.0	339.9	7.9	100.0

Note: Some columns do not add to totals shown because of rounding.

Source: Gartner (January 2015)

Apple demand is large part of TSMC 44% sales growth, GlobalFoundaries 21%, and Hynix 25% in first quarter of 2014.

Apple diversifying its semiconductor supplier started couple years ago (see November 2013 blog http://semiconductorexpert.blogspot.com/2013/11/who-will-fabricate-apple-microprocessors.html ).

When Apple shifted from using Samsung as the only vendor fabricating its microprocessor, it had large impact on Samsung sales. Apple was a major customer of Samsung several years ago. See March 2012 blog Foundry Rankings (Including Samsung’s  iPad, iPhone Breakdown) . 

More about Apple increases reliance on TSMC and adding GlobalFoundaries is in earlier blogs such as April 2015 Next iPhone Be Fabricated at TSMC .

Ron

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