MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-Two reports confirm the growing optimism about the semiconductor market. Research Group Gartner said general global chip sales will grow 25 percent this years and 15 percent in 2005. In another study, IDC said it anticipates base station chip sales to snag $1.9 billion this year and grow to $2.4 billion by 2008.
Gartner said chip demand will rise 69 percent to $299.3 billion by 2008, up from $177.2 billion, according to Richard Gordon, Gartner’s research vice president.
He is, however, quoted as saying “2005 is a bit more of a tricky forecast because I think it is going to be a transition year between a high-growth era and a slightly slower growth era in 2006.”
IDC said demand for third-generation equipment will be the main driver for base station chips.
“Stronger OEM-backed standardization activity, such as OBSAI and CPRI, along with migration to off-the-shelf chip approaches, will be the major trends to follow in this segment,” said Sean Lavey, program manager at IDC. “We believe further reductions delivered at the chip level for key 3G baseband, transceiver and power amplifier subsystems will help jump-start expansion and upgrades to data-enabled cellular networks.”
