Wireless is top market for chips, says analyst

Wireless will continue to be the fastest growing chip application area over the next four years, according to IFS2008, the semiconductor industry forecast seminar run by analysts Future Horizons in London last week.

The four fastest growing chip markets between 2007 and 2012 are: ultra wideband (UWB) expected to grow at 139 per cent CAGR 2007-2012; Zigbee expected to grow at 132 per cent; Wimax expected to grow at 63 per cent; and RFID in shops expected to grow at 87 per cent.

The next four fastest growing application areas will be, according to Future Horizons, robotics at 46 per cent CAGR 2007-2012; near field communications (NFC) at 45 per cent; digital audio broadcast (DAB) at 44 per cent, and biometrics at 34 per cent.

PC growth has been slowing down for decades but it is still expected to grow 11 per cent CAGR in unit terms between 2007 and 2012 from 200 million units this year to 450 million units in 2012, and the PC still accounts for 17 per cent of the semiconductor market. Laptop units are expected to overtake desktop units for the first time this year. The processor still accounts for nearly half the semiconductor cost in a PC.

The odd thing about the mobile phone application is that the value of the semiconductor content remains flat. Semiconductors in mobile phones account for 18.7 per cent of the total semiconductor market and CAGR between 2007 and 2012 is put at a measly 0.1 per cent. This is despite expected unit growth rate of 5.4 per cent 2007-2012 CAGR.

Despite hype about automotive being a growth market, it still only accounts for 8.3 per cent of the total semiconductor market, and the value of semiconductors used in automotive applications is expected to grow at only 13.1 per cent CAGR between 2007 and 2012.

Analyst Chris Ryan said the next killer application could be TV to the mobile video player, rather than TV to the cellphone.