Samsung jumps to fourth place in 2004 consumer chip ranking, says iSuppli

Samsung jumps to fourth place in 2004 consumer chip ranking, says iSuppliSamsung jumps to fourth place in 2004 consumer chip ranking, says iSuppli
Press release; Esther Lam, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 6 October 2005]

Samsung Electronics nearly doubled its sales of consumer-electronics-oriented semiconductors in 2004, using its broad chip portfolio to vault into the market’s s top ranks, according to iSuppli.

The South Korean electronics giant in 2004 saw its consumer chip revenue expand to US$2.1 billion, up 84.2 % from US$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, Sony and Matsushita Electric, which maintained their top-three positions in 2004.

Samsung is best known as a supplier of memory chips, and leads the world in sales of such devices. Indeed, much of the company’s consumer-electronics-chip revenue growth in 2004 was due to a 109.4 % rise in sales of memories to the segment, with its revenue in this area rising to US$932 million, up from US$445 million in 2003. However, Samsung also achieved robust sales growth in other semiconductor product lines, illustrating the company’s drive to become a leader in the consumer-electronics market.

Samsung’ s revenue from sales of general-purpose logic ICs for consumer-electronics products rose by 116.1 % 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 % of revenue due to shipments of chips for its own MP3 player line and those of other manufacturers.