The worldwide semiconductor industry recorded revenues of $ 228.4 billion in the year 2009 which is at a drop of 10.5 % when compared to the figures for the year 2008 marking the first time that the sector has witnessed drop in revenues for two consecutive years. The silver lining is that the trends for second half of 2009 show that the industry is finally moving northward bound reveal new findings from Gartner.  

"After an unprecedented decline in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, sequential quarterly revenue growth for the industry overall was very strong in the last three quarters of 2009," said Peter Middleton, principal research analyst at Gartner. "As a result, 2009 performance overall was much milder than initially feared in the aftermath of the financial crisis."

US-based leading chip maker, Intel continued to be at the top of the chart for the 18^th consecutive year and in fact increased its market share from 13.6% in 2008 to 14.6% despite revenues declining by $1.6 billion.

Korean company Samsung was among the few to have managed increase in revenues during the year. Garnet attributes the rise to the fact that its main product lines DRAM and NAND flash  had already recorded drastic drop in 2008 and hence the company was prepared to alter its strategy in 2009 by adjusting supply.

Another company to register increase in revenues was Hynix Semiconductor which benefited from its DRAM offerings.

The company to be severely affected was Infineon which saw its revenues drop by 43.1% in 2009.