Gartner: semiconductor revenue down over 5% in 2008

More to come

Market researcher Gartner has surely shocked nobody with the confirmation that the semiconductor industry suffered a 5.4 percent fall in revenue in 2008.

Revenue of $255 billion for the industry was down $14.5 billion from the 2007 total. The shortfall is primarily accounted for by the very poor fourth quarter.

"While sales held up fairly well in the first half of 2008, in the third quarter the industry started to soften as the economy slowed, and by the fourth quarter sales were deteriorating quickly, causing revenue growth to go into negative territory," said Peter Middleton, principal research analyst at Gartner. "With the market heavily impacted by the recession, we can expect considerable market consolidation going forward."

In other words, expect more profit warnings and insolvencies. Here's Gartner's table showing how individual vendors fared. Intel stayed top and managed to limit the fall in annual revenue. Qualcomm managed a good year but the memory vendors all appear to have suffered.

Top 10 Worldwide Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue Estimates (Millions of U.S. Dollars)