Apple Inc. (AAPL), Samsung in Another ‘Battle’

It is easy to understand that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rakes in money, hand over fist, thanks to its popular devices and services. On the flipside, many people neglect to realize that Cupertino spends quite a bit of money as well. After all, it takes money to make money. This is particularly true in the ultracompetitive world of technology.

It seems that Apple is always battling with Samsung, and according to Gartner, this stretches past which company can sell the most smartphones.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung were the top global semiconductor customers last year. Between the two companies, they accounted for 17 percent of demand. This works out to $57.9 billion of semiconductors, which is an increase of nearly $4 billion when compared to 2013.

Market Share Numbers

Samsung remains the number one customer of semiconductor chip vendors, with market share of 9.4 percent. Apple is not that far behind, however, pulling in 7.6 percent in 2014.

Masatsune Yamaji, an analyst at Gartner, added the following insight:

“Samsung Electronics and Apple have topped the semiconductor consumption table for four consecutive years and their decisions have considerable technology and pricing implications for the whole semiconductor industry.”

This is not new territory for Samsung or Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), as both companies have been spending quite a bit for quite some time.

Samsung’s growth was a bit behind the market as a whole, thanks in large part to its struggles in the smartphone market.

After Samsung and Apple, the other companies with substantial market share include: HP, Lenovo, Dell, Sony, Huawei, Cisco Systems, LG Electronics, and Toshiba. With 4.3 percent market share and a 2013-2014 growth percentage of 7.1 percent, HP is in the best position to move into one of the top two spots. Also, don’t sleep on Lenovo, as the company shows a 2013-2014 growth percentage of 33.9 percent, which is the largest by far out of the top 10 companies.

This “battle” between Apple and Samsung is not nearly as exciting as some others, but it is something to keep an eye on. For the meantime, there is no reason to believe that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Samsung will drop out of the top two positions.

Disclosure: none.