Analog IC market struggles to gain footing in 2012

USA: Worldwide economic uncertainty has given the analog IC market plenty of ups and downs over the last several years; however 2012 was one of the worst years for this segment. Analog was down 7 percent from 2011 with revenues just shy of $40 billion, although this was the unfortunate reality for the entire semiconductor market, which had an average decline of 3 percent in 2012.

All markets within analog did poorly, with the exception of the wired market. Power, automotive and communications were the most resilient, whereas computer, interface, and data conversion products took the worst hit.

Texas Instruments still remains the largest manufacturing company in analog in terms of market share; they finished 2012 with 16.7 percent of the entire market, or $6.6 billion in revenue. In 2011, Texas Instruments completed the acquisition of National Semiconductor; this has proven to be a very profitable purchase as the market share in interface jumped from 23 to 27 percent and analog power IC share went from 21 to 24 percent in 2012.

With TI's recent decision to restructure their business, they have been able to focus their efforts more on their dominating analog market. TI remains resilient, despite the oversupply in the industry caused primarily by China's slowing economy and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe.

STMicroelectronics remains the second largest in market share for 2012 at slightly over 9 percent and $3.6 billion in revenue. Like TI, STMicroelectronics is attempting to better allocate its resources in the midst of a poor market and may dissolve the venture with Ericsson to better focus their efforts in analog products and power management. Being Europe's top chipmaker, they are likely facing similar oversupply problems and other issues regarding the European economy.

Analog Devices, Inc. makes up the third largest market share at 5.7 percent and $2.3 billion, but saw a year over year decline of 8 percent. ADI currently has the largest market share in the data converter segment, making up half of the market share with a $1.1 billion for 2012 revenue.

The overall data converter market was down for all companies by an average of 14 percent; however ADI only took a 12 percent decrease and the company's market share increased slightly from 2011. Within the data converter market, ADI easily has an 84 percent share in high speed ADCs and a 60 percent share in overall ADC revenue, making them the worldwide leaders in both segments.

Source: Datamonitor, USA.