Fingers crossed: It's no secret the semiconductor market has been experiencing a worldwide shortage for months now, but according to a new report signalling growth for the chips industry, the shortage could be over as soon as next year.
In what's sure to be welcoming news for both consumers and suppliers alike due to the lack of chips, analysts from IDC forecast the semiconductor market will grow by 17.3% in 2021. Comparatively, this is a considerable increase from the 10.8% rise we saw in 2020. IDC also believes the semiconductor shortage will be over by mid-2022, and come 2023 may even experience overproduction.
The global recovery is being fueled by several product categories including mobile phones – demand for 5G smartphones replacing the older generations – game consoles, notebooks, servers, and smart home devices.
5G semiconductor revenue is expected to increase by 128% this year, which would contribute to the mobile phone chips sector growing by 28.5%. Elsewhere, game consoles, smart home, and wearables will grow by 34%, 20% and 21%, respectively.
"The semiconductor content story is intact and not only does it benefit the semiconductor companies, but the unit volume growth in many of the markets that they serve will also continue to drive very good growth for the semiconductor market," said Mario Morales, Group Vice President, Enabling Technologies and Semiconductors at IDC.
Notebook semiconductor sales will rise by 11.8% and x86 server revenues will also increase by 24.6%. Semiconductor revenues for the automotive industry, meanwhile, will increase by 22.8% in 2021.
Thanks to the market rebound amid a pandemic, IDC anticipates the semiconductor industry will reach $600 billion by 2025. That figure would result in a compound annual growth rate of 5.3%, higher than the typical 3-4% mature growth rate the market is used to.