The 2014 semiconductor market was US$335.8 billion, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS). 2014 increased 9.9% from $305.6 billion in 2013. We at Semiconductor Intelligence have held to our forecast of 10% semiconductor growth in 2014 since February 2014. Our earlier forecast in November 2013 was 15% growth. Most other 2014 forecasts released in early 2014 were much more conservative with IDC at 3.6%, Gartner at 5.4%, IC Insights at 7% and usually optimistic Future Horizons at 8%. Objective Analysis in December 2013 and May 2014 projected over 20% growth in 2014. Mike Cowan’s monthly forecast for 2014 was 3.6% in February 2014 but was raised to close to 10% by April 2014.
In December 2014 Semiconductor Intelligence projected 11% growth for the semiconductor market in 2015. As in early 2014, we are at the high end with January 2015 forecasts for 2015 ranging from IDC’s 3.8% to Future Horizons 8.5%. We will update our 2015 and 2016 forecasts in our March newsletter.