Large-screen smartphones or 'phablets' with displays of 5" or greater are on track to surpass worldwide shipments of tablet computers this year, according to IC Insights’ latest Update to the 2015 IC Market Drivers report. The Update’s forecast shows the popularity of extra-large smartphones continuing to gain momentum in the first half of 2015 with unit shipments now expected to reach 252m this year, which is a 66% increase from 152m...

Smartphones first accounted for more than 50% of total quarterly cellphone shipments in Q113. In Q415, smartphones are forecast to reach 435m units or 80% of total cellphones shipped according to data in IC Insights’ newly released Update to its IC Market Drivers Report. On an annual basis, smartphones first surpassed the 50% penetration level in 2013 (54%) and are forecast to represent 93% of total cellphone shipments in 2018.

Power transistor sales are forecast to grow 6% in 2015 and set a new record high of $14.0bn following a strong recovery in 2014, which drove up dollar volumes by 14% after two consecutive years of decline, according to IC Insights’ 2015 O S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes. In the last six years, power transistor sales have swung wildly, overshooting and undershooting end-us...

Since the global economic recession of 2008-2009, the IC industry has been on a mission to reduce older capacity (wafers under 200mm) in order to produce devices more cost-effectively on larger wafers. From 2009-2014, semiconductor manufacturers have closed or repurposed 83 wafer fabs, according to data compiled, updated and now available in IC Insights’ Global Wafer Capacity 2015-2019 report.

Over the past 15 years, strong growth in optoelectronics has been fueled by several different product categories at different times. Laser transmitters for high-speed optical networks were a major growth driver before the dot.com implosion in 2001. Image sensors and lamp devices (primarily LEDs) became star performers in the last decade, and more recently, laser transmitters have re-emerged as a major growth driver in optoelectronics.

The June Update to the 2015 IC Market Drivers report from IC Insights includes revisions to IC market conditions and forecasts for the 2015-2018 automotive, smartphone, personal computer and tablet markets, as well as an update to the market for the IoT.

IC Insights will release an update to the 2015 McClean Report in late May 2015. This update includes a discussion of the history and evolution of IC industry cycles, an update of the capital spending forecast by company, and a look at the top 25 1Q15 semiconductor suppliers (the top 20 1Q15 semiconductor suppliers are covered in this bulletin).

Texas Instruments was again the leading supplier of analogue devices in 2014 with $8.1bn in sales, and increased its analogue marketshare to 18%, according to rankings of top suppliers of major IC product categories found in IC Insights’ April Update to The McClean Report 2015. The top 10 analogue IC suppliers accounted for 57% of total analogue sales in 2014, up slightly from 56% in 2013.

Stiff competition in sensors for high-volume design wins and a recovery in actuator growth shuffled the ranking of suppliers in the $9.2bn market for sensors and actuators in 2014, according to IC Insights’ 2015 report A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.

Communication and computer systems are forecast to account for the greatest percentage of IC sales in every geographic region, according to data released in the 2015 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers, A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits. Communications applications are expected to capture just over 41% of IC sales in Asia-Pacific and 39% of the revenue in the Americas region this...

IC Insights will release its April update to the 2015 McClean Report later this month. The update includes the final 2014 company sales rankings for the top 50 semiconductor and top 50 IC companies and the leading IC foundries. Also included are 2014 IC company sales rankings for various IC product segments.

Sensor shipments are getting a big boost from the spread of embedded measurement functions for automated intelligent controls in systems and new high-volume applications, such as wearables and the IoT, but sales growth is being pulled down significantly by price erosion in this market. This is according to IC Insights’ latest report, 'A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators and Discretes'.

IC Insights recently released its March update to the 2015 McClean Report, including a review of IC company sales by headquarters location. As shown in the image below, U.S. companies held a 55% share of the total worldwide IC market in 2014, which includes sales from IDMs and fabless IC companies but not foundry sales.

According to IC Insights’ 2015 O-S-D report, titled A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes, worldwide sales of optoelectronics, sensors, actuators and discrete semiconductors have increased 9% to reach an all-time high of $63.8bn after rising just 1% in 2012 and 2013. Modest gains in the global economy, steady increases in electronic systems production and higher unit demand in 2014 drove a...

According to IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers report, smaller and more powerful medical systems are driving up sales of ICs, sensors and other devices for the medical semiconductor market. IC Insights believes medical semiconductor sales growth will strengthen this year and next before sliding back in the next expected economic slowdown in 2017 (see image below).

As an update to the company's 2015 McClean Report, IC Insights has refreshed the forecasts for 33 major IC product categories through 2019. The complete list of all 33 major IC product categories ranked by the updated forecast growth rates for 2015 is shown below in Figure 1, with eleven product categories expected to exceed 7% growth rate.

Total production value of electronic systems increased 5% in 2014 to $1,488bn. While the electronic system production is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2% from 2013-2018. Figure 1, below, compares the relative market sizes and projected growth rates of 10 major systems segments covered in the 2015 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers report.

More than any other industry, the semiconductor business is defined by rapid technological change.  As a result, a constant and high level of investment in R&D is essential to the competitive positions of semiconductor suppliers. The figure below shows IC Insights’ 2014 ranking of semiconductor companies by R&D spending.

Total semiconductor unit shipments (ICs and opto-sensor-discrete, or O-S-D, devices) are forecast to continue their upward march through the current cyclical period and top one trillion units for the first time in 2017 according to IC Insights’ forecast. Semiconductor shipments in excess of one trillion units are forecast to be the new norm beginning in 2017.

IC Insights’ recently released 2015 edition of 'The McClean Report' shows that DRAM bit volume grew by an average of 67% per year from 1995-2005. In the 10 years since then, however, bit volume growth has averaged 43% per year (see figure below). A worldwide economy mired in recession reduced bit volume growth to an all-time low of 21% in 2009, a big contrast to the 1990s when annual DRAM bit volume growth remained above 70%.