According to the latest outlook report released by Gartner, 2010 was the most fruitful year in the history of the semiconductor industry, and the market will continue to grow in 2011, but the growth rate will slow down. It estimated that global semiconductor revenues could reach $314 billion in 2011, up 4.6 percent from the $300.3 billion estimated in early 2010.

According to Gartner, the global semiconductor industry revenue will steadily grow 31.5% in 2010, is expected to exceed the $300 billion mark for the first time. However, chip prices have corrected slightly since the third quarter, and the firm expects the market to continue this pattern for the rest of the year.

Bryan Lewis, vice president at Gartner, said: "Semiconductor revenue has been below seasonal norms for the third consecutive quarter, and fourth-quarter growth may not only miss expectations, but may even be negative for the first time in six quarters." The third quarter of 2010 was a turning point, as semiconductor manufacturing industry capacity peaked in the middle of the year and chip lead times and average selling prices then began to decline. "Strong Christmas holiday sales will be key to sustaining a modest chip price correction in 2011."

In 2010, memory was the strongest growing segment of the overall semiconductor market, with revenue growth of 49.8 percent, however, the memory market is the only segment forecast to decline in 2011, with revenue falling 2.4 percent. DRAM revenue is expected to decline 15.6 percent in 2011, mainly due to weaker-than-expected PC demand and lower DRAM prices. Revenue from NAND flash memory, the storage device for many popular consumer electronics products, is expected to grow 24 percent.

From an application point of view, smartphones, mobile computers and media tablets will drive semiconductor growth until 2014. The popularity of Apple's iPad will lead to rapid growth in tablet media, a market that is expected to continue to grow amid fierce competition from brands. Gartner predicts that the semiconductor industry's revenue from tablet media will increase from $2.4 billion in 2010 to $17.8 billion in 2014.

In the PC market, general consumer purchases of PCS were lower than expected, and business sales from the PC replacement cycle were also weak. However, slower consumer and business PC sales have been compensated for by stronger than expected tablet media sales. PC semiconductor revenue is expected to be $64 billion in 2010, up 34.8% from 2009. In 2011, semiconductor revenue in PC is estimated to decrease by 3.2% to $62 billion. The decline was mainly due to falling DRAM prices, but other semiconductor components such as cpus showed growth.

The outlook for handset production improved; Overall, Gartner believes that semiconductor revenue in mobile applications will grow to a healthy $48.7 billion in 2010, up 23.2 percent from 2009. In 2011, global semiconductor mobile phone revenue is expected to reach $55.4 billion, an increase of 13.6% from 2010.