Date: 14/03/2012

Gartner ups its semiconductor revenue estimation for 2012 from 2.2 to 4%

Gartner finds it previous global semiconductor revenue growth estimation of 2.2% in year 2012 is no good and has come out with a fresh estimation where the global semiconductor revenue to reach $316 billion in 2012, a 4 % increase from 2011.

The extremely volatile and one of the major category of the global semiconductor market, the DRAM to see better growth due to Elpida(filed for bankruptcy protection)story. DRAMeXchange has reported the module price is climbing steadily - average 4GB module price increased 5.7% to US$18.5, while highest price was $18.75. Average 2GB module price was US$10.25, up 5.13% from US$9.75. Mainstream DDR3 2Gb contract price exceeded US$1 for the first time this year.

Another important memory device, the NAND flash is estimated by Gartner to grow at 18 percent due to solid state storage in mobile and mainstream computing. Gartner forecasts semiconductor revenue from media tablets will reach $9.5 billion in 2012. Another market researcher IHS has reported overall shipments of NAND flash for all media tablets will rise to 16.3 billion gigabytes by 2015, up by a factor of 10 from 1.6 billion gigabytes in 2011. By 2015, media tablets will account for 17% of global NAND shipments, up from 9% in 2011.

The emiconductor revenue from PCs is estimated to reach $57.8 billion in 2012 with PC unit growth rate of 4.7% and the mobile phone unit production is expected to grow 6.7%, with semiconductor revenue for mobile phones totaling $57.2 billion in 2012, as per Gartner.