Revenue was down 36.2 percent from the start of the present sharp downturn in the third quarter of 2008.

However, looking ahead, the market researchers estimates that the first quarter of 2009 will represent the bottom of the semiconductor market decline and that revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009 will exceed those in the fourth quarter of 2008.

On a sequential basis, revenue will rise by 7.1 percent in the second quarter, by 10.4 percent in the third quarter and by 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

"Of the 130+ semiconductor suppliers tracked by iSuppli on a quarterly basis, only six managed to expand their revenue in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2008," said Dale Ford, senior vice president, market intelligence, for iSuppli. "Even among these six suppliers, four increased their revenue by only 1 to 3 percent."

The list is headed by Dialog Semiconductor, the Kirchheim/Teck, Germany-based power management chip specialist, and includes Macronix International, MediaTek, Osram, Telegent Systems and TriQuint Semiconductor.

Meanwhile, iSuppli stresses every region of the world suffered double-digit percentage declines in semiconductor revenue in the first quarter compared to the fourth.

"Although the first quarter is typically weak for the global semiconductor industry, the sharp declines in semiconductor during that period and in the fourth quarter of 2008 reflect the impact of the global economic downturn on the worldwide chip business," Ford said.

The figures do hide, however, some significant regional variations.

Companies headquartered in the Americas fared the best during the downturn, with a combined revenue decline in U.S. dollars of 30.8 percent since the third quarter of 2008. European-headquartered companies suffered the worst decline, with their combined revenues falling by 44.5 percent during the same period. Japanese suppliers fared nearly as badly as their European counterparts, suffering a contraction of 43.5 percent.

However, the picture is very different if company revenues are maintained in the local currency and not converted to U.S. dollars. Changes in currency exchange rates have a notable impact on revenue growth when converted to a common dollar basis. European supplier revenues fell by only 36.1 percent since the third quarter of 2008 if their revenues are measured in euros. On the other hand, Japanese company revenues fell by nearly 51 percent during the same time if their revenues are measured in yen.

Korean and Taiwanese suppliers saw steep revenue declines between the third and fourth quarters of 2008 followed by much more moderate declines between the fourth and first quarters. For Korea, this was 8.4 percent down, while Taiwan saw only a 6.4 percent fall.

In contrast, Japanese companies suffered the biggest hit on revenues in the first quarter of 2009 when their combined revenues fell by nearly 31 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. The corresponding figures, expressed in U.S. dollars, were 26.1 percent decline for Europe and 14.3 percent for the Americas region.

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