IT Facts

Worldwide sales of semiconductors grew by 5.5% to $22.7 bln in August 2008 from August 2007 sales of $21.5 bln. Sales grew by 2.4% from July when sales were $22.2 bln, SIA says. Year-to-date sales through August were $170.2 bln, an increase of 4.5% from the same period of 2007 when sales were $162.9 bln. Excluding memory products, industry sales were up by 11.4% YTY in August 2008. Year-to-date sales were 4.5% ahead of 2007 and remain in line with the SIA mid-year forecast of 4.3% growth in 2008. PC unit sales are projected to grow by more than 13% in 2008. Unit sales grew by 9.1% YTY in August 2008, a modest slowdown from July 2008. Worldwide unit sales of cellular handsets remained strong – especially in emerging markets. Unit sales of cellular handsets are forecast to grow about ten% in 2008, with the strongest growth coming from emerging markets.

The global market for nanomaterials for electronics applications will reach $600 mln in 2008 and grow at a compound annual rate of more than 40% to reach nearly $7 bln in 2015, according to The Information Network. The Semiconductor sector will have a 62.1% share of the $600 mln market in 2008, primarily because of utilization of Designer Molecules for DUV photoresists and for Slurries for chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). Nanotubes and Nanowires will enter the market after 2010 and begin to gain share. However, the Semiconductor sector will lose market share to Sensors and RFID, and by 2015 its share will have dropped to 58.1% of the nearly $7 bln market for nanomaterials.

Global semiconductor sales rose 7.6% in July 2008 from July 2007. Worldwide sales were $22.178 bln, up from $20.603 bln a year ago, the Semiconductor Industry Association said. Excluding memory products, semiconductor sales increased by 11.6% YTY and by 3.2% sequentially. The 7.6% increase is down slightly from the 8% increase marked in June 2008.

The router market in EMEA continued to grow in Q1 2008. The enterprise router market grew by 8.4% from $933 mln in 4Q 2007 to $1.01 bln in Q1 2008, according to IDC. Compared to Q1 2007, the router market achieved a revenue increase of 15% from $879 mln to $1.01 bln in Q1 2008. High-end router sales went up by 13% from $589 mln to $665 mln in Q1 2008, driven by service providers investing in offering new services such as IP television (IPTV) and video on demand (VoD) to their end customers. SOHO segment reported the highest decline of 10.3% from $38 mln to $34 mln in Q1 2008.

Total revenue of Internet advertising increased by 23.9% to $7.1 bln in Q1 2008 compared to $5.7 bln in Q1 2007, according to IDC. Google continued to extend its leadership position in the U. S. Internet advertising market in Q1 2008: the company’s estimated net advertising market share was 24.8% in Q1 2008, up from 23.1% in Q1 2007.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments slowed notably in Q1 2008, resulting in sequential growth of -9.2% over Q4 2007. In YOY comparisons, overall unit shipments and market revenue grew by 25.7% and 15.9% respectively, according to IDC. Shipments of processors for desktop PCs led the slowdown in Q1 2008, with sequential growth of -11.9%. Processors designed for mobile PCs and servers faired slightly better, with growth of -5.9% and -6.0% respectively compared to Q4 2007. All three segments experienced solid YTY growth, however, led by a 42.8% increase in microprocessor shipments for mobile PCs.

In terms of processor vendor shares, Intel experienced a small gain over AMD in Q1 2008. On an overall unit basis, Intel earned 78.9% market share, a gain of 2.2%. AMD earned 20.9% market share, a loss of 2.2%, according to IDC. Similar shifts in market share were evident by form factor. In the mobile processor segment, Intel earned 85.3% market share, a gain of 3.4%, and AMD captured 14.5%, a loss of 3.3%. In the PC server processor segment, Intel earned 87.0% share, a gain of 1.6%, while AMD earned 13.0%, a loss of 1.6% share. Finally, in the desktop PC processor segment, Intel captured 73.1% share, an increase of 1.0%, and AMD earned 26.7% share, a loss of 1.0%.

Global semiconductor sales grew 5.9% in April 2008, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported. Chip sales rose to $21.2 bln in April 2008, up from $20.1 bln in April 2007.

The Communications Chip market generated estimated $36.6 bln in the year 2007. That revenue was generated by shipping an estimated 3.73 bln chips during the year, iLocus says. Texas Instruments leads the market earning around $6.6 bln and thus holding 18% of the communications chip market share. Other leaders in the market include Freescale, ST Microelectronics, Broadcom and Qualcomm. Collectively the top 5 chip vendors had revenues of about $21.3 bln which accounted for 58% of the market revenues. Broadband and cellular chips were the major contributors of revenue to the overall Communications Chip market. Broadband contributed 22.6% of the total revenues while 21.7% were contributed by the chips consumed by cellular devices. Within our segmentation, Optical Networking chips contributed the least i.e. $1.4 bln of the total communications chip revenues for the year.

Pricing strength will contribute to a strong Q1 2008 for small/medium displays, with global revenue reaching $6.4 bln in Q1 2008, up 17.3% from $5.4 bln in the Q1 2007, according to iSuppli. Revenue in Q1 2008 will decline by 6.5% compared to Q4 2007, but such a seasonal slowdown is typical in the small/medium market. For all of 2008, small/medium display revenue is expected to rise to $27.6 bln, up 14.7% from $24 bln in 2007. This represents a significant acceleration compared to 8.8% growth in 2006.

GPS IC shipments to reach 1 bln annually in 2013. Average Selling Prices (ASPs) will continue to fall, but the effect on vendors’ revenue streams will be more than offset by this strong growth in volume, ABI Research says.

Global semiconductor market revenue grew by only 3.3% in 2007. iSuppli predicted the global chip market would grow by 4.1% in 2007. Worldwide DRAM revenue fell by 19.1% in the Q4 2007 compared to Q3 2007. NAND flash revenue declined by 3.9% in Q4 2007.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors in January 2008 were $21.5 bln, a nominal increase of 0.03% from January 2007, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported. Sales declined by 3.6% from December 2007 when the industry reported sales of $22.3 bln.

The Semiconductor Industry Association reported that global sales of semiconductors grew for the sixth-consecutive year, reaching a record $255.6 bln in 2007, an increase of 3.2% from the $247.7 bln reported in 2006. Worldwide sales in December 2007 were $22.3 bln, an increase of 2.5% compared to the $21.7 bln reported in December 2006. December 2007 sales declined by 3.6% from the immediate-prior month when sales were $23.1 bln. The modest sequential decline in December reflected normal seasonal patterns. Worldwide sales in Q4 2007 were $66.8 bln, an increase of 2.5% over Q4 2006 sales of $65.2 bln. Shipments of personal computers, which account for approximately 40% all semiconductor consumption, grew by 13.8% and will grow by 12.2% in 2008. Mobile PC unit sales grew 32.2% while desktop unit sales grew by 4.1%. Cell phone unit shipments grew by 20% to nearly 1.2 bln units in 2007. Current forecasts project 10 to 15% growth in unit shipments in 2008.

In-Stat expects worldwide semiconductor revenue to grow by 2.4% in 2008 to $261.9 bln. The consumer segment will lead 2008 growth at 5.9% and the consumer and communications segments will gain share while the computer segment share declines over the forecast period. The computer segment, whose share has been trending downward since 2000, is expected to remain the largest segment by a wide margin, although, by 2012, its share is forecast to be 41.8%, well below the 50% + levels of the 1990s.

IDC predicts that the Chinese semiconductor market will surpass $28 billion in 2011. The largest capacity distribution of China fabs was represented by 8″ wafer lines, followed by the 6″ and 12″ capacity respectively. The computing semiconductor segment will account for over 62% of the total China semiconductor market in 2011, with remarkable growth from the portable PC and server semiconductor markets.

PC-powered processors will enter the market in small quantities during 2009, but will grow to over 21 mln shipments in 2015, according to ABI. Currently, microcontroller use in personal robotics is in the millions; sensor shipments for personal robots will increase to over 2 bln by 2015; and actuators, servos, and manipulators will grow almost 100-fold by 2015 as well.

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased by 8% in 2007 when compared to 2006 area shipments, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group. Revenues grew by 21% in 2007 compared to 2006, as a result of 300 mm contributing to an overall better product mix. Silicon wafer area shipments in 2007 totaled 8,661 mln square inches (MSI), up from the 7,996 mln square inches shipped during 2006. Revenues grew to $12.1 bln from $10.0 bln posted in 2006.

Semiconductor sales rose 3.2% in 2007, according to Semiconductor Industry Association. Chip sales reached $255.6 bln in 2007, up from $247.7 bln in 2006, driven mainly by strong demand for PCs, mobile handsets and consumer electronics.

For the full year 2007, total worldwide PC processor shipments grew 12.6% compared to 2006, according to IDC. Total revenues grew 1.7% to $30.55 billion. The disparity of unit growth and revenue growth indicates the degree of price erosion that occurred early in the year 2007.

Intel earned 76.7% market share, a gain of 0.4%. AMD earned 23.1%, a loss of 0.4%, according to IDC. These shares are identical to the shares of Q2 2007. In the mobile processor segment, Intel earned 81.9% share, a gain of 1.1% and AMD earned 17.8%, a loss of 1.1%. In the PC server processor segment, Intel earned 85.4%, a loss of 0.6% and AMD earned 14.6%, a gain of 0.6%. In the desktop PC processor segment, Intel earned 72.1% share and AMD earned 27.7%; share changes were negligible.

Shipments of processors for PC servers in Q4 2007 grew17.0% sequentially, according to IDC. Shipments of processors for mobile PCs grew 10.3%, while processors for desktop PCs grew 6.5%. In the desktop processor segment, high-end and mainstream processors represented 87.1% of processors shipped in Q4 2007, up from 84.6% in Q3 2007.

Demand for NAND flash is expected to increase by 130% YTY, according to DRAMeXchange. Supply bit growth is expected to be 130-140% in 2008. Demand from mobile handset makers is expected to increase by just over 10% YTY to be worth $1.23 bln. MP3/PMP devices will grow by 20% to be worth $200 mln, followed by USB flash drives, which will grow by 25% YTY to be worth $170 mln.

For January through November 2007, DRAM sales are $1.35 bln or 4.8% higher than previously reported. Total semiconductor sales are also $1.35 bln or 0.6% higher than previously reported, SIA admits. January through November 2007 sales are running 3.4% ahead of the same time period in 2006.

More than 419 mln near-field communications chipsets will ship in 2012, according to ABI Research. NFC revenue is offset by declining unit ASPs. By 2012, ABI Research forecasts that NFC chipset ASP will decline to $0.97, for a total market revenue of $406 mln.