Top semiconductor sellers in 2004: Intel, Samsung, TI

Intel for the 13th consecutive year remains the world's largest chip company in terms of sales. Gartner's estimate of $30.5 bln for 2004 represents a 12.6% increase over its 2003 sales of $27.1 bln. Samsung Electronics boasted the second place and posted a 48.9% increase, from $10.5 bln in 2003 to $15.6 bln in 2004. Texas Instruments moved up a position in 2004, to the third place, with a 31.1% increase. The Asia-Pacific market area showed the strongest rate of growth in 2004, up 34.6% over last year. It was followed by Europe, Middle East and Africa (19.8%), the Americas (16%) and Japan (14.6%).