Smartphone Shipments Slow; Is Help on the Way?
Revenue from RF GaAs-enabled devices fell by nearly 6 percent in 2019, marking the biggest decline since 2004. The Strategy Analytics Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) report “RF GaAs Device Industry Forecast: 2018 – 2024” identifies declining smartphone shipments as the primary culprit for this drop in GaAs revenue. The report does go on to forecast that growth will resume, allowing RF GaAs device revenue to approach $9 billion by 2024. Drivers for this renewed growth will be the quickening pace of 5G network and device deployments.
“Wireless applications, particularly cellular terminals, dominate GaAs device revenue,” noted Eric Higham Director of the Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) service. “Smartphones contain substantial GaAs content, so it was no surprise when declining shipments in 2019 pulled down the entire GaAs market.” He went on to say, “Despite the uncertain COVID-19 implications, I remain optimistic that expanding deployments of 5G devices and networks will become the new growth engine for GaAs device revenue. We will be monitoring developments at GaAs handset PA manufacturers like Skyworks, Qorvo and Broadcom to get better clarity about the 5G growth trajectory.”
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