Worldwide chip revenue to grow 27% in 2010

The outlook for the semiconductor industry has improved from Gartner's first quarter 2010 forecast, when it projected worldwide semiconductor sales to grow 19.9%. Analysts said this improvement in market conditions is in part due to an accelerated broad-based recovery in all regions and most product categories. "Sequential semiconductor growth has been very strong over the last five quarters, well above seasonal norms, and manufacturing capacity is tight" said Bryan Lewis, research vice president at Gartner. "Chip revenue growth is clearly outpacing system revenue growth and that is a concern. Gartner's new semiconductor forecast has below-average growth in the second half of 2010 as we are anticipating a minor correction to realign semiconductor sales with electronic system sales. Even with this minor correction, we are still expecting very strong growth and record semiconductor sales in 2010." Gartner analysts expect the semiconductor industry to show continued growth through its forecast period in 2014. The market is on track to surpass the USD 300 billion mark in 2011, when the market is forecast to total USD 307 billion.