Top ten vendors buy a third of all semiconductors

A third of all the semiconductors produced are being bought by the top ten PC vendors and original equipment manufacturers, according to figures released by Gartner.

Although the semiconductor market shrank by 11.4 per cent in 2009, the demand from these companies has continued unabated.

HP was the leading firm in terms of consumption, thanks mainly to its presence in a number of market segments, including desktops, laptops, servers and storage. In second place was Samsung, while Nokia sat at third.

However, the only vendors to increase purchases were Apple and Acer, which has been attributed to high consumer demand and growing market share respectively.