Taiwan News
Date: 2017/04/16
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total US$386

Favorable market conditions in the 2nd half of 2016, particularly for commodity memory, have raised market outlook… (photo courtesy of TSMC)

billion in 2017, an increase of 12.3 percent from 2016, according to Gartner, Inc, a leading information technology research and advisory company. .

Favorable market conditions that gained momentum in the second half of 2016, particularly for commodity memory, have accelerated and raised the outlook for the market in 2017 and 2018, according to Gartner. However, the memory market is unstable, and additional capacity in both DRAM and NAND flash is expected to result in a correction in 2019, the research firm said.

“While price increases for both DRAM and NAND flash memory are raising the outlook for the overall semiconductor market, it will also put pressure on margins for system vendors of smartphones, PCs and servers,” said Jon Erensen, research director at Gartner. “Component shortages, a rising bill of materials, and the prospect of having to counter by raising average selling prices (ASPs) will create a volatile market in 2017 and 2018.”    [FULL  STORY]