It's Official: HP Was the Biggest Chip Cruncher in 2007

PC and server vendor Hewlett-Packard bought $15 billion worth of semiconductors during the last year, which positions the company as world's biggest semiconductor purchaser for the last year. The report has been issued by market analysis company Gartner, and includes a top of the greatest chip crunching companies.

According to the report, the biggest 10 chip consumers have spent no less than $91 billion last year, which accounts for a faint 1 percent increase over the amount they spent one year before. Gartner's "Semiconductor DQ Monday Report" estimated that 38 percent of the world chip production were directed to the data-processing industry, while communications managed to snatch 35 percent of the chip production. Consumer electronics devices accounted for only 20 percent of the semiconductors, industrial devices managed to get only 5 percent, and finally, the automotive industry picked the 2 percent crumbs.

One of the biggest players in the semiconductor industry is gaming console manufacturer Nintendo, whose chip needs more than doubled over the last year because of strong sales of the Wii game console and DS handheld devices. According to Gartner, the company spent $3.6 billion on semiconductors only, which translates in more than 100% growth as compared to the amount the game console manufacturer spent during 2006.

"Companies such as Nintendo are trend-setters, and their design choices affect other manufacturers," said Gartner analysts Alfonso Velosa and Jon Erensen in the report. "We expect many electronics firms to experiment with touch screens, non-optical and optical sensors, and multiple wireless technologies -- but many of these offerings will fail, due to poor software and user-interface integration. However, these activities should result in growth opportunities for semiconductor firms that provide relevant components."

Gartner claims that the company's success was built on the user experience, its expertise in software, its integration of sensors and its relationship with worldwide game development studios.