IC Insights announce the October Update to The McClean Report, offering a unique analysis of the total semiconductor market through 2017. Including a detailed look at 33 IC product categories by market size, unit shipments, and average selling price, the Update provides thorough coverage of the often overlooked, but very important, optoelectronic, sensor/actuator, and discrete portion of the semiconductor industry.

Despite a drop in global television unit demand in 2013, the semiconductor market for TVs is forecast to increase by an estimated 7% to $13.1 billion, according to data presented in IC Insights’ upcoming IC Market Drivers 2014 report (Figure 1). Technologies such as wireless video connections, networking interfaces, multi-format decoders and LED backlighting have boosted the average semiconductor content in TV sets even as global TV unit sh...

Semiconductor capital spending has increased significantly among pure-play foundries as more IDMs shift to a fabless/fab-lite business model and as new foundry participants intensify competition among the old guard. The total capital outlays by the Big 4 pure-play foundries are forecast to be $16.6 billion in 2013, which would represent 53% of their combined sales (Figure 1).  This far exceeds the industry average of 18% capital-spending-to-...

Customers in the Americas region (primarily the U.S.) are expected to account for nearly two-thirds of pure-play foundry sales in 2013, a slight increase from 2012.  IC Insights forecasts that Americas region will represent 70% of TSMC’s sales, 67% of sales from GlobalFoundries, and 47% of sales from both UMC and SMIC (Figure 1).

IC Insights has published a list of the top semiconductor sales leaders for the first half of 2013. The list showed the usual big-time players that we’ve come to expect like Intel, Samsung, and TSMC, leading the way in semiconductor sales through the first six months of the year. What stood out nearly as much, however, was that only one Japanese company—Toshiba—was present among the top 10 suppliers through the first half of 201...

IC Insights has released its Mid-Year Update of The McClean Report 2013, finding that total microprocessor sales are now expected to increase 8% in 2013 after rising just 2% in 2012. Worldwide microprocessor sales are set to reach a record-high $61.0 billion in 2013 mostly due to strong demand for tablet computers and cellphones with Internet connections. However, the ongoing slump in standard personal computers, including notebook PCs, is once a...

In 1970 Intel introduced the first DRAM device. Now forty-three years later, the DRAM market has finally matured to the point where there are only three major suppliers remaining - Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron (which recently closed on its acquisition of Elpida). According to IC Insights’ Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report 2013, a good sign that the DRAM market has reached maturity is that capital expenditures in 2013 are forecast to be...

Later this month, IC Insights will release the August Update to the 2013 McCleanReport which will show a ranking of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers in 1H13.  A preview of the top 20 companies is listed in Figure 1. The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, discrete, and sensor) sales leaders for 1H13 include eight suppliers headquartered in the U.S., four in Japan, three in Europe, three in Taiwan, and two in ...

IC Insights’ new 250-page Mid-Year Update to the 2013 McClean Report, describes why a very clear distinction should be made between the IC market (i.e., consumption) in China and IC production within China. Although China has been the largest individual market for ICs since 2005, it does not necessarily mean that large increases in IC production within China would immediately follow, or ever follow.

An increase in DRAM average selling prices developed every month throughout 2013 and are now at levels last seen in October 2010, according to data in IC Insights’ Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report, which will be released at the end of this month. On a quarterly basis, the DRAM average selling price jumped an estimated 42% in 2Q13 compared to the same period in 2012.

Ongoing weakness in notebook personal computers will be offset by stronger unit growth of touch-screen tablets—especially smaller “mini” systems with 7- and 8-inch displays—resulting in a 4% increase in integrated circuit sales for all types of personal computing products this year, says a new update of IC Insights’ 2013 edition of IC Market Drivers—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circu...

The smartphone is a subset of the total cellphone handset marketplace. One basic difference between an enhanced cellphone and a smartphone is the ability of the smartphone to incorporate third-party applications. Smartphones also typically connect to leading-edge cellular network services and are at the forefront of the convergence of data, telecom, and consumer-oriented functions (such as video games, camera, music player, mobile TV, etc.) in a ...

Many of the preliminary 1Q13 GDP figures by country or region have now been reported. Based on the first quarter data, IC Insights has slightly lowered its worldwide GDP forecast from the 3.1% shown in the March Update to 3.0% (Figure 1). The reduction in the worldwide GDP growth forecast for this year was driven by a lower GDP growth forecast for the U.S., which now stands at 2.2% (the same as in 2012).

A slowdown in notebook and desktop personal computer purchases coupled with strong growth in smartphones and tablet PCs knocked Advanced Micro Devices down to fourth place in microprocessor sales in 2012 from second, where AMD had been perched behind Intel since the 1990s, according to a new ranking of MPU suppliers by IC Insights.

Later this month, IC Insights’ May Update to The 2013 McClean Report will show a ranking of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers in 1Q13. A preview of the top 20 companies is listed in Figure 1. The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, discrete, and sensor) sales leaders for 1Q13 include nine suppliers headquartered in the U.S., four in Japan, three in Europe, and two each in South Korea and Taiwan, a relatively broad re...

The high-flying acceleration and yaw sensor product category was brought back to earth in 2012 when price erosion pulled down annual sales growth to 7%—the lowest percentage increase for motion-sensing semiconductors since 2005, according to IC Insights’ new 2013 O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.

Unlike the relatively close annual market growth relationship between fabless IC suppliers and foundries, fabless IC company sales growth versus IDM (integrated device manufacturer) IC supplier growth has typically been very different (Figure 1).

MCUs are being designed into an ever-expanding range of end-use applications in automotive, consumer, computer, communication, industrial, and medical systems. Consequently, market growth in microcontrollers has been relatively stable since the 1980s when compared to many other IC product categories. It typically takes a global economic recession to upset the diverse MCU marketplace, and that’s exactly what occurred in 2009, when the microcontr...

Increasing HD video content, social networking, shared data via the cloud, low power consumption, and “instant on” features continue to drive growth of consumer, communication, and computing devices that use NAND flash memory. While applications are many, smartphones, tablet computers, and solid-state drives are forecast to be among the biggest users of NAND flash memory in 2013 (see figure below).

After strong gains in 2010 and 2011, power transistor sales fell more than 8% in 2012 to $12.3 billion primarily due to weak economic growth and high levels of uncertainty, which caused equipment makers to rein in semiconductor purchases, according to IC Insights’ new 2013 O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.