NAND flash, wireless, MCU to lead market upturn

Interestingly, the market for NAND flash memory is expected to top the list while NOR flash is anticipated to be at the bottom with the biggest percent decline in sales for this year. NAND flash has been a top growing market segment over the past few years due to the growth of consumer-driven mobile media devices such as smartphones and tablets. NAND flash will benefit from growing demand for solid-state drives (SSDs) where the combination of strong demand for NAND flash and continued weakness in DRAM average selling prices will result in the total flash market surpassing the DRAM market for the first time this year.

Wireless Telecom-Special Purpose Logic/MPR devices—that include applications processors used in smartphones and tablet/media PCs)—and 32bit MCUs are forecast to lead all product segments with 15 percent growth this year. Other products expected to show better-than-market performance are MPUs, display drivers, PLDs and 16bit MCUs. It is worth noting that the market for 16bit MCUs is forecast to surpass the 8bit MCU market for the first time, joining the 32bit MCU market that first surpassed the 8bit MCU segment in 2010.

Six categories that are forecast to show double-digit stand in contrast to the 15 products that showed positive growth and 18 that experienced a decline last year.

Momentum for automotive-related ICs is forecast to carry over this year as well as semiconductor content per new vehicle increases due to government safety and environmental mandates (low tire-pressure warning, electronic stability, collision avoidance, etc.) and consumer interest in on-board telematics. Auto—Special Purpose Logic/MPR and Auto—Application-Specific Analog are expected to be among the top growing segments for the third consecutive year, added IC Insights.