IC Insights has forecast that 14 out of the 28 IC market segments it tracks will experience growth in 2011, with seven segments expected to enjoy double-digit increases. The number of categories exhibiting positive growth will be down compared to the strong recovery in 2010, when all but two product segments enjoyed an upturn in sales, the research firm said.
However, the IC market is still showing enough strength for half the product segments to enjoy an uptick in sales in 2011, according to IC Insights.
The market for automotive-related ICs was strong in 2010 and that momentum has carried into 2011 as well, said IC Insights. Systems and features such as GPS/navigation, Bluetooth, and sensors for low tire pressure warning, anti-roll, collision avoidance/adaptive cruise control, and parking assist are expected to help the automotive application-specific analog segment achieve 32% growth, the highest among all product segments in 2011, while the automotive-special purpose logic segment is expected to achieve 13% growth.
The flash memory segment is also forecast to be among the top-growing IC markets in 2011, though the rate of growth is expected to be significantly smaller than in 2010, IC Insights indicated. NAND flash, specifically, remains an enabler for a large number of existing and emerging portable, wireless, and low-power handheld systems – systems that are in very high demand throughout all regions of the world. Smartphones will continue to be a growth driver for NAND flash with tablet PCs and solid-state drives (SSDs) for portable PCs becoming bigger consumers of flash in the near-term future.
On the opposite end, 12 IC product segments will see negative growth during 2011, according to IC Insights. Several memory segments that enjoyed a strong sales recovery in 2010 are forecast to decline sharply in 2011. In the case of SRAM and ROM devices, the declines are the result of a big drop in unit shipments. Meanwhile, a 17% drop in DRAM ASPs may cause this market to fall 13% in 2011, a huge swing of 88 points from the 75% growth the DRAM market enjoyed in 2010.