Gartner's forecast is somewhat higher than the $228bn the US' Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) predicted last month, but lower than fellow market researcher iSuppli's bullish $237.3bn.
Like iSuppli, Gartner has Intel, Samsung and Texas Instruments down as the world's top three chip makers, with market shares of 15.0, 7.6 and 4.4 per cent, respectively. Tenth-placed AMD - up a rung on the position it took in the 2004 chip companies' ladder - has 2.4 per cent of the market, with sales up 13.7 per cent year on year. Intel's rose 14.3 per cent, Gartner said.