"The worldwide semiconductor market declined in 2015 as slowing demand for key applications combined with strong currency fluctuations to subdue the market," said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner.

"2015 saw a mixed performance by the different device categories, unlike 2014 when all categories posted positive growth. Nonoptical sensors performed best due to increased usage of fingerprint sensors in smartphones, while discretes saw the strongest decline due to a mix of weak demand and currency issues."

Intel retained the No. 1 market share position for the 24th consecutive year, capturing 15.4 percent of the worldwide market, despite experiencing a 1.2 percent revenue decline in 2015 (see Table 1). Infineon Technologies experienced the strongest growth among the top vendors, moving from No. 12 to the No. 9 position in 2015.

2015 saw record merger and acquisition (M&A) activity between major semiconductor vendors, including several acquisitions and disposals that had a material effect on semiconductor sales. Among the most significant deals was Intel's acquisition of Lantiq. Driven by Lantiq's broadband gateway and digital home capabilities, this acquisition helped Intel nearly double its wired ASSP business.

"2015 semiconductor revenue results are skewed by the large amount of M&A activity during the year," said Mr. Norwood. "If we adjust for this M&A activity by adding in revenue for 2015 and 2014 where necessary, then the performance is somewhat different: The top 25 vendors would have experienced a 1.7 percent revenue decline, and the rest of the market would have declined 3.9 percent."