Hardware giant Hewlett-Packard was the top semiconductor consumer, purchasing about $15.3 billion, though Gartner said PC-maker Dell and mobile phone specialist Nokia were within $500 million of the top position.
The other top five semiconductor consumers were Samsung and Sony, followed by Motorola, Siemens, Toshiba, LG and Apple.
“Nokia, Motorola and Siemens represented a large fraction of the increased consumption, driven by strong cell phone and communications growth,” said Gartner research director Alfonso Velosa.
“Data processing and telecommunications firms represented 75 per cent of the total semiconductor spending by the top consumers,” he said.
Gartner said the top 10 OEMs represented a diverse group of businesses, focusing on a variety of applications, ranging from large telecom equipment firms to industrial conglomerates.
These OEMs operate under a variety of end market focuses. Nokia, HP and Dell are largely pure-play firms, focused on the cell phone or the PC and server markets.
Sony is centered on consumer electronics, but also sells automotive and data processing products. Apple entered the top 10 for the first time, propelled by its broad mix of products, and in particular, its strong sales of portable media products.
“The top 10 OEMs in 2006 were multinational firms that have been implementing supply chain best practices over many years,” Mr. Velosa said.
“They have experience in managing a large number of global supply chain partners. This experience is enabling these OEMs to better compete in commoditized markets by increasing the volume of products developed where product design and manufacturing may be controlled in different geographic regions by the OEM or its partners.”
“Although semiconductor consumption will remain concentrated among the top OEMs, the design-in, sales, order and fulfillment channels will continue to evolve,” Mr Velosa said.
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