Asia-Pacific to Dominate IC Sales Across System Categories in 2015

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Asia-Pacific’s grip as the dominant market for IC sales is forecast to strengthen in 2015 with the region expected to account for 58.9% of the $295.0 billion IC market this year, based on analysis published in IC Insights’ mid-year Update to its IC Market Drivers 2015 report.  The forecast marketshare represents an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the 58.4% share that the Asia-Pacific region captured in 2014. The Asia-Pacific region is particularly dominant with regard to IC marketshare in the computer and communications categories, and to a lesser extent in the consumer and industrial categories (Figure 1).  Globally, the communications segment first surpassed the computer segment to become the largest end use market for ICs in 2013 and it is forecast to extend its marketshare lead to 2.7 points in 2015.

Europe is forecast to account for the largest share of the automotive IC market in 2015, but IC Insights expects the Asia-Pacific region will achieve top share of that segment in 2016 as China continues to account for a large and growing portion of new car shipments.  That will leave only the Government/Military end use segment where Asia-Pacific does not have top IC marketshare—a condition that is forecast to hold through 2018.

IC Insights’ Update to the IC Market Drivers 2015 report forecasts total IC usage by system type through the year 2018.  Highlights from the forecast data include the following items.

• The two largest end-use market segments in 2015—computer and communications—are forecast to account for 73.9% of the total IC sales this year.
• From 2012-2018, the two highest growth end-use markets for ICs are forecast to be the industrial and communication segments, having CAGRs of 9.1% and 8.2%, respectively.
• The automotive IC market is forecast to a CAGR of 6.1% from 2012-2018, yet automotive’s share of the total IC market is forecast to remain below 8.0% throughout this time.
• In 2015, analog ICs are forecast to represent the greatest share of IC sales among automotive (43%) and industrial (50%) applications; logic devices are expected to account for the greatest share of IC sales within government (33%) and consumer (19%) systems, and MPUs (60%) are forecast to account for the greatest share of IC sales in the computer segment.

Additional details on IC sales by system type are provided in IC Market Drivers 2015—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits.  IC Market Drivers examines the largest, existing system opportunities for ICs and evaluates the potential of new applications that are expected to help fuel the market for ICs.

IC Market Drivers is divided into two parts.  Part 1 provides a detailed forecast of the IC industry by system type, by region, and by IC product type through 2018.  In Part 2, the IC Market Drivers report examines and evaluates key existing and emerging end-use applications that will support and propel the IC industry through 2018.  Some of these applications include the automotive market, smartphones, personal/mobile computing (including tablets), wireless networks, digital imaging, and a review of many applications to watch that may potentially provide significant opportunity for IC suppliers later this decade.  The 2015 IC Market Drivers report is priced at $3,390 for an individual-user license and $6,490 for a multi-user corporate license.