Analog Market Leaders Eyeing on IoT Applications

When we talk about analog IC market, one can easily guess who the leader with lion’s share in the market is. There are also next level leaders with impressive growth rates in this market. The analog market as such is poised to grow with Internet of Things (IoT) because it supplies some of the key components such as data converters, op amps, analog switches, audio amplifiers, and so on for IoT segments like wearable, home, automotive, industrial etc. Therefore it is interesting to watch the activities of upcoming leaders and the top leader on how they avail the opportunities presented by the IoT wave.

While there is not much change in relative ranking of top10 analog IC leaders between 2013 and 2014, the growth data of a few companies indicate that they are well established to benefit from the developing IoT ecosystem. Let’s look at the table below –

Texas Instruments(TI) is the clear leader, much ahead from the rest. Also, it has posted a decent 13% growth in sales with current market share at 18%. The analog IC market has been perceived to be fragmented and a market share of 18% may look small for TI; however it’s about 3 times the market share of each of its nearest four rivals. ST Microelectronics, Infineon, Analog Devices and Skyworks Solutions are each at 6% market share with revenue nearly 1/3[SUP]rd[/SUP] of TI.

As I have said earlier in one of my blogs on TI, analog and embedded are their core strengths. Their strategy is to concentrate on analog and embedded market and eventually win in the IoT space. The Apple watch, launched recently contains Opp Amp, OPA2376 from TI. TI gets 62% of its total revenue from analog IC sales. In sensors space also TI improved its rank from 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] in 2013 to 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] in 2014, first being Bosch. TI’s focus on analog market has been there since long. It became the first manufacture of analog devices on 300mm wafers after acquisition of 300mm manufacturing tools from Quimonda in 2009. TI acquired two more fabs in 2010, one from Spansion in Japan and the other from Censon in China; both of these manufacture analog ICs. Then in 2011, TI acquired National Semiconductor, a leader in analog market. TI aims to reduce its chip manufacturing cost by up to 40% by moving the manufacturing to 300mm wafers.

Skyworks Solutionsshowed dramatic improvement from 2013 with a 42% jump in sales and improving its rank to 5[SUP]th[/SUP]. Skyworks supplies analog and mixed-signal components to top smartphone and mobile devices companies including Apple and Samsung. The iPhone 6 has many amplifier components from Skyworks. Also, Skyworks’ wireless technology can be found in General Electric healthcare equipments. Recently Skyworks begged a deal from Panasonic to supply high-performance filters. Skyworks is aiming high to become a prime supplier for automotive, home, consumer electronics, and wearable segments of IoT market. The rapid rise of Skyworks can help it climb higher ranks in the analog space.

Although ST’s sales in analog increased just by 2%, its market share must improve in future as it has started supplying gyroscopes and accelerometers for Apple watches. NXP’s analog sales also increased substantially by 21%; however NXP has a market share of just 4% in analog ICs.

Analog Devices (ADI) analog IC sales increased by 9% compared to 2013. It’s worth mentioning that ADI’s touch screen controller (with 3D/Force Touch feature) has found its place in Apple watch. It’s expected to get into iPhone 6 and next generation iPad as well.

A detailed report about the market share of top10 analog IC suppliers is available at IC Insights website here. Also read, “Secret of TI’s Success in Analog & Embedded Space”.

Pawan Kumar Fangaria
Founder & President at www.fangarias.com