WASHINGTON: Semiconductor revenues in the Asia-Pacific region are forecast to total US$275 billion in 2017, amounting to about 71 per cent of global revenue for the sector, according to analyst firm, Gartner. This is an increase of 14.6 per cent from 2016, it said. This mirrors worldwide semiconductor revenues, which the company forecasts to total US$386 billion in 2017, an increase of 12.3 per cent from 2016.
Gartner’s recent findings in the worldwide semiconductor space further supported this claim, with the company finding that semiconductor revenue totalled US$339.7 billion in 2016, a 1.5 per cent increase from 2015’s revenue of US$334.8 billion. It also found that Intel remained in the top spot, marking 25 years as the number one semiconductor vendor, with 15.9 per cent market share.
According to Gartner research director, Jon Erensen, favorable market conditions that gained momentum in the second half of 2016, particularly for commodity memory, have accelerated and raised the outlook for the market in 2017 and 2018. However, Erensen added that the memory market is fickle, and additional capacity in both DRAM and NAND flash is expected to result in a correction in 2019. “While price increases for both DRAM and NAND flash memory are raising the outlook for the overall semiconductor market, it will also put pressure on margins for system vendors of smartphones, PCs and servers,” Erensen said.
