Gartner has released a more calm outlook for semiconductor revenue and PCs in 2012. The report is citing broad uncertainty for the market and the uncertainty of the Euro Zone, as well as Thai floods, and less robust consumer spending trends. The areas that are keeping the growth alive are the usual suspects: Latin America and Asia/Pacific.
The firm has put global semiconductor sales at $309 billion, up only 2.2% from 2011 to 2012. Just last quarter that figure was expected to be growth of 4.6%. As you have seen elsewhere, inventory corrections and oversupply have been noted as key culprits.
The 2012 projection for the PC market was cut in half, all the way down to 5% growth from 10% growth. Flooding in Thailand affecting hard-disk drive production is a key factor here.
Gartner also trimmed its tablet PC expectations to 107 million units from a prior forecast of 110 million units. Before thinking that the tablet craze is dead, consider that the lower revision is still anticipated to be 63% higher in 2012 versus 2011.
What is interesting is that the mobile phone production expected to grow by 7.5% instead of 7.0%.
The research said that global disk storage revenue rose by 10% in the third quarter to $5.1 billion but it also warned that this segment appears to be slowing.
JON C. OGG
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