As per the market research company Gartner, India is the hot market for semiconductor devices. India’s semiconductor market for 2011 is estimated at $8.2 billion, with a growth rate of 15.5 percent compared to 2010 market of $7.1 billion. Gartner bills India as the the fastest growing market in terms of semiconductor consumption for 2011.
The reasons for growth as per the Garter analysis include changing demographics, increasing consumer affluence, economic growth and favorable government. The release also points increasing number of global electronics OEMs setting up manufacturing facilities in India. Chennai has become hot destination for electronic manufacturing after Nokia setup a plant there. The OEMs such as Nokia buy huge number of analog and discrete semiconductor ICs locally, although from leading international brands, resulting in increase in chips sales locally.
Communications electronics segment, which includes mobile phones, wireless LAN, public switching and other communications infrastructure equipments are estimated at 52 percent of India’s semiconductor consumption in 2011, followed by computer market such as desktop computers, laptops, monitors and storage equipments, with about 26 percent share of the total semiconductor consumption.
Ganesh Ramamoorthy of Gartner believes the India’s semiconductor market will be able to easily sustain high growth rates in the coming years due to low penetration and the growing demand for key electronic equipments such as mobile phones, desktop and laptop computers and LCD TVs. He predicts through 2015, nearly three-fourths of India’s semiconductor consumption will be accounted by these three electronic equipment segments (wireless/telecom, computer and consumer electronics).