EARTH SCIENCES
Dataquest Stats Show ‘01 as the Worst Year in History of the Semicon Industry
SAN JOSE, CA -- Semiconductor vendors have struggled through the worst industry decline in the history of the market, as 2001 worldwide semiconductor revenue declined 33 percent to $152 billion, according to preliminary statistics by Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB). All of the top 10 semiconductor vendors experienced revenue declines ranging from 19 percent to 49. "The entrepreneurial model of building and investing in new technology went bust in 2001. A downturn of this magnitude will be difficult for many companies to recover from in 2002," said Mary Olsson, chief analyst for Gartner Dataquest's worldwide semiconductor group. "As is evident in the sizeable declines by most of the top vendors, the industry has undergone tremendous destabilization. We expect further consolidation of the industry during 2002." NEC experienced the strongest decline as its 2001 revenue dropped more than 50 percent from 2000. Gartner Dataquest analysts said this was attributed to the shift in NEC's DRAM revenue to Elpida, the Hitachi/NEC joint venture DRAM company, as well as declining product revenue, including ASIC/ASSPs. In spite of the difficult economic situation, semiconductor production for digital consumer products, such as DVDs, digital cameras and game consoles, was good this year compared to other applications. "While 2001 has been the worst year ever for the industry, start-ups continue to emerge and some companies continue to invest in wireless data, networking, and wireless interactivity. These markets will become the growth drivers during the next five-years and beyond," Olsson said. "Thus, in spite of the serious nature of the downturn, the industry has kept an eye on the future." Additional information is available in the Gartner Dataquest Alert "Preliminary Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking, 2001." This provides preliminary rankings for the top 20 companies worldwide as well as the top 10 vendor in the Americas, Europe and Japan. For more information or to purchase reports visit www.gartner.com