27 March 2012

Compound semiconductor industry revenue growth slowing

Early announcements from compound semiconductor manufacturers Skyworks, RF Micro Devices and Freescale all point to revenue declines at the close of 2011, but bandwidth consumption and mobile handset sales are still increasing, notes the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs) viewpoint ‘Compound Semiconductor Industry Review January 2012: Microelectronics’.

The report from market research firm Strategy Analytics summarizes technology, product, contract, financial and employment announcements for these firms, as well as others such as Fujitsu, Anadigcs, Agilent, Hittite Microwave, TriQuint Semiconductor, Avago, Soitec, Analog Devices and Microsemi for January 2012.

“Even though we are seeing revenue growth rates slow from some of the larger compound semiconductor manufacturers, this should not set off too many warning bells,” believes Eric Higham, director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service. “The need for bandwidth, especially due to ever-increasing sales of mobile handsets, will continue to power revenue growth in the compound semiconductor industry,” he adds. 

“Revenue is typically the highest in the third quarter as manufacturers increase production in advance of the holiday season,” comments Asif Anwar, director of the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice. “Despite the declines at the end of the year, Strategy Analytics expects 2012 revenue growth for the industry to be close to the historical average of 6%,” he concludes.

Tags: Mobile handset shipments

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