ST revenues up in flat car infotainment market

Defying a flat year for the global automotive infotainment semiconductor market, STMicroelectronics NV achieved double-digit revenue growth in 2008 due in part to the success of its Cartesio product, a combined media processor and GPS baseband chip, according to iSuppli Corp.

The global automotive infotainment semiconductor market in 2008 generated revenue of $3.4 billion, up a scant 0.6 percent from $3.3 billion in 2007. While the average amount of entertainment and informational electronics content in cars continued to increase in 2008, the infotainment industry suffered from a 6.6 percent decline in global car sales for the year. The infotainment semiconductor industry's flat growth in 2008 contrasts sharply with its 16.8 percent expansion in 2007.

The rankings and information presented in the ranking table and this release cover the automotive infotainment application-specific semiconductor area—comprised of ASIC, ASSPs and PLDs. Infotainment functional areas covered in iSuppli's market-share estimates include amplifiers, digital terrestrial and satellite radios, GPS, navigation systems, multimedia processing and AM/FM tuner and baseband solutions.

ST stays on top
ST massively outperformed the market in 2008, with its revenue rising by 12.6 percent to $439 million, up from $390 million in 2007. The company's share of global automotive infotainment semiconductor revenue rose to 13 percent, up from 12.6 percent in 2007.

"STMicroelectronics benefited from the strong market acceptance of the Cartesio, with the company notching up several key design wins," said Richard Robinson, principal analyst, automotive electronics, for iSuppli. "Due to the Cartesio, STMicroelectronics achieved massive growth in the multimedia/navigation segment of the infotainment chip market, with its revenue in this area revenue rising to $71 million in 2008, up a stunning 1,320 percent from $5 million in 2007."

Looking at the major segments of the automotive infotainment semiconductor market, ST in 2008 held the leading position in the audio amplifier and digital/satellite radio tuner/decoder segment and was No. 2 in AM/FM tuner/audio processing and GPS navigation receiver areas.