Samsung battles Intel for semiconductor leadership
Samsung Electronics came closer to challenging Intel's chip market leadership in 2010 than any company had in more than a decade, according to new IHS iSuppli market research.
The newly released final market share rankings for 2010 showed No 2 ranked Samsung held a 9.2% share of global chip revenue, up 7.6% from 2009. This put the South Korean electronics giant a mere 4.1 percentage points behind the market leader.
"The rise of Samsung is one of the biggest stories of the last decade in the worldwide semiconductor market," said IHS analyst Dale Ford. "When experts discuss competition for Intel, they almost always focus on AMD.
"While it is true that AMD is Intel's major competitor in the microprocessing unit market, Samsung is the primary rival of Intel for overall semiconductor market share. Although they are mainly indirect competitors in the marketplace, Intel and Samsung have been ranked No 1 and No 2, respectively, for a number of years."
