The global semiconductor market is in decline and will continue to languish until after 2005, according to a new study released Wednesday by research firm International Data Corp. (IDC).
Blaming the drop on weak demand for personal computers, a drop in demand that will see the first-ever year-over-year decline in PC sales, IDC expects the semiconductor market to end 2001 more than US$12 billion lower than it ended 2000. Overall, IDC forecasts that the global semiconductor market will be worth $38 billion in 2001, compared to $50.3 billion in 2000.
As the drop in chip sales will be caused by a drop in PC sales, the desktop semiconductor market will be the hardest hit market sector, dropping from $38.6 billion in 2000 to $27.3 billion in 2001, IDC said. Portable chips will lose only a little more than $1 billion, IDC said, ending 2001 at $10.6 billion.
Additionally, microprocessors will drop from $27.1 billion [b] to $22.2 billion, while DRAM (dynamic random access memory) will drop to half its 2000 value, down to $6.6 billion by the end of 2001.
IDC is a division of International Data Group Inc., parent company of the IDG News Service.