Another bleak year ahead for RFIC market

A new report from Strategy Analytics forecast that profits are going to be hard to come by for RF chipmakers over the next year, just as they have been for the past two years.

The market research group, which scrutinized the collective financial performance of nearly 50 suppliers of radio components for wireless applications, attributed the slow decline in profits to maturing wireless markets, increasing component complexity and more rapid commoditization at the low end.

"It is difficult to predict the precise effect of global economic conditions on component suppliers," admits Christopher Taylor, director of the Strategy Analytics RF and wireless components market research service. "However, the recent trend toward lower profits in the RF sector is clear, and tighter credit in the global financial markets coupled with lower spending by U.S. consumers, will do nothing to counter the trend."

The group suggests profits will decline by about one percent of sales for RF component suppliers this year. It adds the modest decline will affect the viability of financially weaker suppliers and start-ups, but should leave top performers in terms of profits-to-sales like Qualcomm, MediaTek and Hittite unharmed.

- John Walko
EE Times Europe