SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Databeans Inc. has lowered its IC forecast, but the research firm sees the bottom of the current IC downturn.
The research firm is predicting a contraction of 18 percent for 2009, resulting in a total available market of $203 billion by the end of the year. In December, Databeans (Reno, Nv.) projected a 6 percent decline.
Worldwide semiconductor revenue came in at $247 billion for 2008--a 3 percent loss from 2007, according to the firm.
There are mixed signs in 2009. ''A few product categories that are expected to remain immune from the woes of the other markets, such as flash, DRAM, and microprocessors, are the same products that are providing a lot of return and at a sweet deal,'' said Susie Inouye, an analyst for the firm, in a report.
''Accelerometers, small circuits that are used to orient handheld screen images and transmit movement in game controllers, are expected to gain momentum this year.'' she said.
''For a meager $1.50, application engineers are including these circuits in high end products that may have to wait until next year for recovery, and in low end products that should do well this year, such as the upcoming sub-$100 Apple iPhone,'' she said. ''The added utility the technology brings to users far outweighs the cost of integration. Capacitive sensing used in touch screens is another technology that should also do well this year for the same reasons.''
The outlook? ''Longer term, Databeans expects the chip market to bottom out during the summer and begin recovering,'' she said. ''We expect considerable inventory replacement for analog and ASSPs, with focus on amplifiers, power, and transceivers specifically. Further down the road, the digital markets should follow suit, although we do expect the competitive landscape to look substantially different by that time.''
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