Samsung has zoomed past Apple in yet another metric and this time, the South-Korean electronics major leads in the total amount spent on semiconductor chips in 2012.

Surpassing Apple to become the world's biggest semiconductor buyer, Samsung purchased nearly 8 percent, or $23.9 billion, of all chips in 2012, reveals a new Gartner report. Samsung upped its expenditure on semiconductors by 29 percent over the year ($18.6 billion in 2011), reflecting the soaring popularity of its products and the huge volumes its mobile device sales.

Follow us

Apple stands second in the list of top semiconductor buyers with an overall spending of $21.4, marking a 13.6 percent increase ($18.8 billion in 2011) when compared to the previous year.

"Although Samsung and Apple continue to go from strength to strength, other leading electronic equipment makers fared less well, and six of the top 10 reduced their demand in 2012," said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner.

According to Gartner researchers, the tech titans, Samsung and Apple, dominated the semiconductor demand in 2012 accounting for 15 percent of total semiconductor demand (8 percent and 7.2 percent respectively).

"The PC market still represented the largest sector for chip demand, but desktop and mobile PCs did not sell well, as consumers' interest shifted to new mobile computing devices like smartphones and media tablets. This shift caused a substantial decrease in semiconductor demand in 2012, as the semiconductor content of a smartphone or a media tablet is far less than that of a PC," Yamaji said.

HP was ranked third in the list with an overall spending of $16.0 billion (12.7 percent drop from 2011) and Dell came fourth spending $9.9 billion (13.4 percent drop from 2011). The top 10 companies including Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, LG, Cisco and Nokia accounted for 36 percent ($106.4 billion) of total semiconductor purchases in 2012.

Join Our Conversation

Smartphones

Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 quad-core smartphone shows up in benchmarks

Leaked images highlight Nokia EOS aluminum body

HTC One will get Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update despite recent rumors

Oppo Find 7 may boast Snapdragon 800 processor, whopping 4000mAh battery

Tablet / Laptop / PC

AT&T Galaxy Note 8.0 LTE costs $399.99 on contract, $199.99 with smartphone bundles

Chromebooks land on Walmart, more retailers to get it soon

Apple's next iPad mini 7.9 inch Retina display will be Samsung-made

Next generation Google Nexus 7 could launch in July for $229

Gadgets

AMD moves from Intel's x86 platform to ARM for servers

OUYA team and E3 organizers battle over parking lot space

Sony PlayStation 4 to be available at $399 at the end of this year

Mad Catz to unveil M.O.J.O. Android game console at E3 to challenge Ouya

OS / Software

Windows Phone 8 GDR2 update reportedly coming in July

iOS 7 Beta comes with a bug that opens the lock screen to access photos [Video]

Microsoft recovers missing Lumia 920 with prototype Windows Phone Blue

Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, Motorola X Phone reportedly launching in October

Internet / Social Media

What to expect from Facebook's June 20 event

WWDC 2013: OS X 10.9 Mavericks Safari is going to help you extend battery life

Samsung Galaxy S3 browser bug spikes data usage, slows loading times

Cisco appeals to European Commission to overturn Microsoft's 2011 acquisiton of Skype

What's App

Microsoft paying app developers up to $100,000 to bring content to Windows Phone 8

Windows 8.1 brings newly updated Xbox Music app

Instagram may add video on June 20 to challenge Twitter's Vine

Microsoft Office now available for iPhones, but there's a catch