Spotting trends is an essential insight for marketing folks, general managers and C-level executives in our semiconductor industry. You could read hundreds of press releases, attend dozens of conferences, and interview all of the major thought leaders to help spot an emerging trend, or you could subscribe to a service like IC Insights to answer your questions. I just read their latest research bulletin and they conclude that the top two semiconductor market segments are:
- IoT
- Automotive
The highest growth rate comes from IoT (Internet of Things) which could be at a 13.3% CAGR to $12.8B by 2020.
The number 2 segment is automotive, growing some 12% to $22.9B by 2020. Other growth rates in declining order include:
- Medical
- Digital TVs
- Servers
- Cellphones
- Standard PCs
- Set-top boxes
The two markets projected to decline through 2020 are:
- Tablets
- Game Consoles
Our family uses three tablet devices and two game consoles, so it makes me feel a bit sad to see declines in these markets. Readers of SemiWiki see that IoT and Automotive are quite popular topics, and that there are menu links at the top of each page for these two market categories so you can get all the latest news. EDA and semiconductor IP companies are also aligning their product and service offerings in these two growth areas: IoT and Automotive.
Looking at just pure market size, we see the two stalwart segments of Cellphones and Standard PCs, totaling $128.8B in estimated sales. There was an estimated 5% decline in Standard PC integrated circuit sales in 2016, while game console IC revenues dipped 4%, and tablets fell at 10%.
The actual report is a heavyweight tome at 492 pages, so the level of detail should satisfy the most curious marketer. Pricing for the report is $3,690 for individuals and $6,790 for a corporate license.
Read the complete research bulletin here as a PDF document.
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