Samsung Replaces Apple As The Top Mobile Chip Customer

Samsung bought more mobile chips than any other company in 2012, according to new data from Gartner. Samsung and Apple  ordered $45.3 billion worth of semiconductors in 2012 which according to Gartner is  up $7.9 billion from 2012.

Samsung was 8% of the chip market last year, while Apple was 7.2% of the market. They were followed by Hewlett-Packard (4.7% of the market), Dell (2.9%) and Sony (2.7%). Rounding out the top 10 were Lenovo, Toshiba, LG, Cisco and Nokia.

“Although Samsung and Apple continue to go from strength to strength, other leading electronic equipment makers fared less well, and six of the top 10 reduced their demand in 2012,” Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. “In addition to a weak macroeconomic situation, a dramatic change in consumer demand contributed to a reduction in semiconductor demand in 2012. The PC market still represented the largest sector for chip demand, but desktop and mobile PCs did not sell well, as consumers’ interest shifted to new mobile computing devices like smartphones and media tablets. This shift caused a substantial decrease in semiconductor demand in 2012, as the semiconductor content of a smartphone or a media tablet is far less than that of a PC.”

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