Apple, Samsung Spent $61.7 Billion on Semiconductors Last Year

According to the latest figures from Gartner, Apple and Samsung spent $61.7 billion on semiconductors last year, contributing 18.2% to the global chip market. Samsung led the market in 2016, spending $31.67 billion last year, with Apple falling to second place. The South Korean company grew its semiconductor design total available market (TAM) with a 9.3% share (via ZDNet).

Apple spent 2.9% less at $29.99 billion, on decreased design TAM for the first time since Gartner began tracking the market in 2007. The iPhone maker’s market share dropped to 8.8%, according to the report, which also highlights that the iPad did not sell well last year and lost share in the PC market. 

While both Samsung and Apple continue to exert considerable influence on technology and price trends for the wider semiconductor industry, “their impact has lessened due to falling expectations for future growth”, noted Gartner’s principal research analyst Masatsume Yamaji.

Yamaji said: “Even though the influence on the semiconductor industry of the top two strongest OEMs is weakening, the combined design TAM of the top 10 companies outperformed the average growth rate of the total semiconductor market in 2016.

“However, semiconductor chip vendors can no longer secure their businesses by relying on a few strong customers because market share changes much faster these days,” he said.

Dell, Lenovo, Huawei, and LG were also among the top 10 global chip buyers in 2016.