STAMFORD, CT – The semiconductor market rallied in 2010, with worldwide revenue reaching a landmark $300.3 billion in 2010, up 31.5% year-over-year, says Gartner.

“In 2010, the semiconductor market was driven by pent-up demand, as system makers scrambled against depleted inventories to obtain parts,” said Stephan Ohr, semiconductor research director at Gartner. “Manufacturers – both integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and foundries – scrambled to put new capacity in place. With slowing demand and a weakening consumer confidence in the third quarter, lead times are coming down, and inventories are slowly starting to build. Still, semiconductor vendors are working on fulfilling backlog orders, and 2010 will go on record as a banner year for the semiconductor industry."

In 2010, the semiconductor market rebounded from a 10% revenue decline in 2009. Overall semiconductor revenue grew $71.9 billion in 2010 – the largest single dollar increase for the industry in any one year.

Intel held the No. 1 vendor position for the 19th consecutive year, albeit with a slightly smaller share of the market, down to an estimated 13.8% from 14.2% percent in 2009. Intel saw strong growth in the first half of the year, as the PC market stocked up inventory in anticipation of a strong second half, but third quarter growth weakened as consumer sentiment began to flag. Sales of mini-notebooks were particularly disappointing, says the research firm.

Samsung Electronics, Toshiba and Texas Instruments all performed well in 2010 to retain their respective rankings of Nos. 2, 3 and 4. Samsung enjoyed a strong growth year, as a result of exposure to the booming DRAM and NAND flash markets. Memory accounts for more than 80% of the company's sales.

Toshiba grew its NAND flash memory business for mobile devices, as well as its discrete, ASIC and ASSP device businesses.

Texas Instruments’ overall semiconductor revenue increased 35.2%, and its analog revenue grew more than 41%.

A new entrant to the top 10 was Renesas Electronics, at No.5, following the merger of NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology on April 1.

Micron Technology rose five places to No.8, largely as a result of its acquisition of Numonyx, which allowed it to capture the last three quarters of Numonyx sales in calendar 2010, says Gartner.