International research and consulting firm Gartner released the latest outlook report. In 2012, global semiconductor revenue estimates reached US$309 billion, and the annual growth rate was revised down from the previous quarter's forecast of 4.6% to 2.2%.

Bryan Lewis, vice president of research at Gartner, said: “The growing concerns about the future of the euro area have affected global economic performance. Consumer and corporate spending has been affected by high economic uncertainties, all of which have impacted the semiconductor industry. The current revisions are not only It was due to the economic recession, at the same time due to inventory corrections, manufacturing oversupply and natural disasters."

PC production growth in 2012 was revised down from the previous forecast of 10.1% to 5%. Gartner said that although the weak economy has caused PC production to be the main cause of the expected decline, the floods in Thailand have resulted in shortage of hard disk supply and further slowed the growth of the PC market. Gartner believes that due to the disorder of the supply chain caused by the floods in Thailand, PC production will be limited to the supply of hard disks in the next few quarters until the hard disk is fully resumed.

Gartner's forecast released this quarter also increased the annual growth rate of mobile phone production in 2012 from 7% to 7.5%. In 2012, the production of media media (media tablet) was reduced from 110 million units to slightly lower than 107 million units, but still grew by 63% compared with 2011. Gartner analysts pointed out that the increase in the output of smart phones will support the growth of the semiconductor industry in 2012.

In 2011, the DRAM market declined by 26%, the overall market will resume growth in 2012, and global DRAM revenue will increase by 3%. The growth of NAND Flash is the fastest, and is expected to grow by 16.6% in 2012, driven by the popularity of consumer mobile devices.

Lewis said, "Gartner's latest forecasting analysis shows that by 2015, if the dollar-based pricing, smart phones, flat-panel media and solid-state drive (SSD) total contribution to the growth of the semiconductor market can reach 77%, obviously this is Business opportunities."