Chip market to hit $276b this year: Gartner

Worldwide semiconductor revenue is on pace to grow 20% to $276 billion (€204 billion) in 2010, according to Gartner.
 
The market will bounce back from a 9.6% decline in 2009, and will pass the $300 billion mark in 2012, the research firm said.
 
PCs and memory will be the primary drivers for 2010's projected revenue growth, Gartner predicted, with DRAM growing by over 55% in 2010 even as prices rise. PC components were one of the few to buck the downward trend in 2009, registering sequential sales growth in the three quarters to end-December.
 
“We have seen clear evidence that the semiconductor industry is poised for strong growth in 2010,” Gartner’s vice president Bryan Lewis said.
 
Lewis added that the key question was whether recovery will continue at its current rate, or be constrained by bottlenecks in production rates or declines in demand.