Date: 30/04/2012

Global semiconductor market forecast 2012: Gartner; 4%, iSuppli; 4.3%, IDC; 6-7%

Market researcher IDC has reported worldwide semiconductor revenues increased more than 3.7% year over year to $301 billion in 2011. The negative factors for less growth as per IDC were macroeconomic uncertainties in the U.S and Europe, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, China's slow down in the second half of the year, and floods in Thailand. The positive factors for growth IDC finds were growth in consumption and demand of smartphones, media tablets and e-readers, automotive infotainment, notebook PCs, datacenter servers, and wireless and wired communication infrastructure.

Among the 100 semiconductor companies IDC had tracked, it said over 40 of the companies experienced year-over-year revenue growth greater than 5%, while about the same number of companies saw their revenue decline by more than 5%.

IDC said Intel, with total semiconductor revenues of $51.8 billion in 2011, once again was the overall market leader. It registered impressive revenue growth and also increased its share of the semiconductor market by three percent. Samsung was ranked as number two vendor by IDC with overall with semiconductor revenues of $29 billion. The top 10 semiconductor chip suppliers according to IDC were Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and Renesas Electronics, Qualcomm, Hynix, STMicro, Micron, and Broadcom. The top 10 vendors contributed 53% of total global semiconductor revenues, an increase of 3% over 2010. The top 25 vendors captured 72% of overall semiconductor revenues for the 2011, as per IDC.

Apple has seen a 140% year-over-year semiconductor revenue growth, according to IDC. Other fast growing companies in 2011 includes Spredtrum Communications, CoreLogic, Microsemi, Sequans, Icera, MegaChips, Nichia Chemical, Osram, RobertBosch, Skyworks, and Cavium.

By the device types, microprocessor, NAND flash seen high growth. DRAM with a fall of more than 25% is at the bottom, where the DRAM maker Elpida has seen the worst of it.

Region wise Asia/Pacific and Americas grown above the industry average, but the Japan and Europe experienced negative growth. Computing segment revenue declined year over year due to the DRAM price collapse and the consumer segment was near flat. Wireless communication and automotive segments registered over 10% year-over-year semiconductor revenue growth.

The number of mergers and acquisitions in 2011 includes Qualcomm-Atheros, Texas Instruments-National Semiconductor, SMSC-Conexant, Broadcom-NetLogic, CSR-Zoran, and Microsemi-Zarlink. This trend is expected to continue in 2012.

Another market researcher Gartner has estimated the global semiconductor revenue to reach $316 billion in 2012, a 4 % increase from 2011.

To read Gartner's forecast visit:
http://www.eeherald.com/section/news/nws201203144.html

Where as IHS iSuppli has reported Global semiconductor revenue is expected to reach an estimated $324.6 billion in 2012, up 4.3 percent from $311.4 billion last year. This represents a slight increase compared to the previous IHS forecast of 3.3 percent issued in January.

To read iSuppli forecast visit:
http://www.eeherald.com/section/news/nws2012042511.html