CORPORATE NEWS
Wireless driving semiconductor growth
Wireless applications will prove to be the saving grace of the global semiconductor market in 2012 in light of this category’s strong double-digit revenue growth, compared to much lower expansions or even losses in most other major market segments.
Semiconductor revenue in the wireless communications category for 2012 is projected to reach A72.6 billion, up 10.4 per cent from A65.8 billion in 2011, according to an IeS iSuppli report. Industrial electronics, with anticipated revenue growth of 7.7 per cent, is the only other category that will come close to the expansion rate of wireless segment.
On the strength of the wireless growth, overall global semiconduc- and semiconductor equipment markets, will also negatively impact the semiconductor chemicals and materials market, according to a report from New Tripolibased The Information Network.
The chemicals and materials market could drop in the double digits between 2011 and 2012, weighed down by the silicon wafer sector. In 2011, the silicon wafer sector also kept the overall market from registering a gain.
Semiconductor manufacturers are demanding price drops. Buyers read about the precipitous drop in photovoltaic polysilicon prices in the past few years and a projected drop of 48 per cent in 2012 and expect semiconductor wafer manufacturers to reduce prices because of reduced raw material costs.
Mobile phones to account for 37 per cent of consumer technology spending
Consumers will spend A2.1 trillion worldwide on digital information and entertainment products and services in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. This amounts to a A114-billion global increase over 2011. Spending will continue to grow at a faster rate than in the past, at around A130 billion a year, to reach A2.7 trillion by the end of 2016.
The A2.1-trillion amount consists of the consumers’ spending on mobile phones, computing and entertainment, media and other smart devices, the services that are required to make these devices connected to the appropriate network, and software and media content that are consumed via these devices.
“The three largest segments of the consumer technology market are, and will continue to be, mobile services,