28 SMT Magazine • September 2015
Electronics Industry News
Market Highlights
Chinese Automotive Semiconductor
Revenues to Hit $6.2B in 2015
Total automotive semiconductor revenue in China
reached $5.6 billion in 2014, and revenues are ex-
pected to grow nearly 11% year over year in 2015
to reach $6.2 billion, according to IHS.
Weak Q2 Demand Pushes Down
2015 LCD TV Shipment Estimates
The global shipments of LCD TVs in the second
quarter totaled 48.25 million sets, down 6.4%
from the prior quarter, according to WitsView, a
division of TrendForce.
Apple Accounts for 20% of Global
Sapphire Demand
Sapphire is the key material for LED manufactur-
ing. But in 2015, 20% of sapphire will be used
in Apple's iPhone, for the camera lens, fingerprint
reader and heart rate monitor covers, and the
Apple watch's window, according to a Yole Dével-
oppement report.
Tsunami of M&A Deals Underway
in the Semiconductor Industry in 2015
Market share expansion, Internet of Things oppor-
tunities, rising costs of R&D, and China's aggres-
sive new focus on the semiconductor industry are
all driving the recent M&A surge, according to IC
Insights.
Smart Home Devices and Systems to
Top 7 Million Support Requests in 2015
A new report from Parks Associates finds that smart
home devices will prompt over 7 million support
requests this year, with adoption at 16% of U.S.
broadband households and nearly 40% plan-
ning to buy a smart home product in the next 12
months.
Smart Robots Market to Hit
$7.85B by 2020
The total Smart Robots Market is expected to reach
$7.85 billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of
19.22% between 2015 and 2020, according to
market research firm MarketsandMarkets.
Worldwide Smartphone Market Posts
11.6% YoY Growth in Q2
According to the latest preliminary release from
the International Data Corp. Worldwide Quarterly
Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of
337.2 million smartphones worldwide in the sec-
ond quarter of 2015, up 11.6% from the 302.1
million units in 2Q14.
Automobile Sector Drives Global Smart
Sensors Market
The global smart sensors market is expected to
reach $9.22 billion in 2018, growing at a CAGR of
11.53% from the period 2014–2020.
SEMI Sees Sustained Growth in
Fab Tool Spending
SEMI forecasts that the total semiconductor equip-
ment market will grow 7% in 2015 to reach $40.2
billion, and expand another 4% in 2016 to reach
$41.8 billion.
Biometrics on Smart Mobile Devices
to Redefine Digital Identity
Acuity Market Intelligence forecasts that between
2014 and 2020, nearly 12.9 billion mobile biomet-
ric apps will be downloaded to smart mobile de-
vices by 2.2 billion mobile biometric users.
28 SMT Magazine • September 2015
