The weakening of demand for personal computers and phones, an improvement in the supply of chips and a decrease in memory prices affected chip spending. The top 10 OEMs, most of which are large OEMs of PCs and phones, saw a decline in consumer demand, leading to lower production and sales
Gartner reported that the world’s top 10 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) reduced their chip spending by 7.6% in 2022, accounting for 37.2% of the total market.
The weakening of demand for personal computers and phones, an improvement in the supply of chips and a decrease in memory prices affected chip spending. The top 10 OEMs, most of which are large OEMs of PCs and phones, saw a decline in consumer demand, leading to lower production and sales. China’s zero-coronavirus policy has also caused material shortages and short-term disruptions in the electronics supply chain. The continued shortage of semiconductors in the automotive, networking and industrial electronics markets raised the average selling prices of the chips, which accelerated the increase in semiconductor revenues in these markets, and led to a decrease in the total semiconductor expenses of the leading OEMs.
Apple remains at the top of the semiconductor customer rankings, reducing spending on computing micro-processing units by 11.7%. Samsung increased chip spending by 2.2% and gained more market share in the smartphone market. Sony showed the fastest growth in chip spending due to consumer interest in the PlayStation 5 video game console, but production volume could not keep up with demand due to chip shortages and disruptions in the logistics network. Memory was the worst-performing device category, accounting for 25% of semiconductor sales, with revenue down 10% due to falling prices.