Texas Instruments No 1 in analog chip market in 1998

In 1998, Texas Instruments of the US retained its number one position in the manufacture of analog chips in revenue terms. The others in the top 10 list were Philips, STMicroelectronics NV, Motorola, Siemens, National Semiconductor Corp., Analog Devices Inc., Toshiba, Sanyo, and Rohm.

Analog chips convert real-world signals like sounds, beats and vibrations into digital ones, and are used in various products like mobile phones and computer networking systems. The Dallas, Texas, based TI had revenues of $ 2.3 billion from analog chips, and accounted for 10.8 per cent of this segment of the chip market. It registered growth of 3.4 per cent during the year.

Aggregate analog chip sales dropped 2.5 per cent to $ 21.1 billion in 1998. This was the first time the sale of these products declined since 1987. There was some consolation in the fact that overall semiconductor sales dropped 8.4 per cent in 1998.

Philips, which saw market share grow 12 per cent to 9.1 per cent, displaced STMicroelectronics from second place. STMicroelectronics had a share of 8.8 per cent (down 2.3 per cent), Siemens 6.7 per cent (up 19.7 per cent), Toshiba 3.8 per cent (down 21.6 per cent), Sanyo 3.6 per cent (down 10 per cent).

The analog chip market is expected to revive in 1999.