Global chip sales show 3.8 pct growth - Gartner

FRANKFURT, March 31 (Reuters) - Global semiconductor revenue grew 3.8 percent to $273.9 billion in 2007, with Intel (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) widening its lead over competitors by growing market share to 12.3 percent, research firm Gartner said.

Intel increased its sales by 10.7 percent, driven by strong shipments of microprocessors for mobile personal computers, Gartner said in its final 2007 report, published on Monday.

Japan's Toshiba (6104.T: Quote, Profile, Research) leapt to third place from sixth with a 20.8 percent increase in sales, pushing Texas Instruments down to number four and Infineon (IFXGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), including memory chip subsidiary Qimonda QI.N, into fifth.

Growth at Toshiba came mainly from integrated circuits for compatriot Sony's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) PlayStation3 games console, NAND flash and image sensors for mobile phones, Gartner said.

Samsung (000830.KS: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest maker of memory chips, retained second place, with a 1.6 percent rise in sales.

As a whole, makers of commodity-like DRAM memory chips suffered from severe oversupply, leading to a $2.4 billion decline in DRAM revenue, Gartner said.

Richard Gordon, managing vice-president at Gartner, said chip vendors needed to look beyond the stated requirements of their customers, and to anticipate demand from end-consumers of electronic equipment, to maintain pricing power.

"With fears of recession high, semiconductor vendors need to move beyond tracking the performance of their end-customers and markets, and track their spending patterns to pick up early warning signs of slowing demand or increased opportunities."

"Periods of uncertainty, like the current one, often create ideal situations to strengthen product and application portfolios without paying inflated prices," he said.