GaAs market recovers strongly to post small yearly growth

BOSTON, USA: The market value for GaAs revenues, driven by smartphones and consumer adoption of data-intensive applications, has grown strongly from the lows it struggled for in early 2009.

The recently published Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductors (GaAs) report, “GaAs Device Vendor Market Share 2009: North America,” reports that this growth brought the total market value for GaAs revenues to little more than $4 billion, a slight increase over 2008 revenue levels.

Skyworks Solutions nudged past RFMD to take the top revenue spot for North American vendors. However, less than one percent market share separates both companies. TriQuint and Avago Technologies both recorded strong revenue growth, substantially gaining on industry leaders.

“Even though revenue from the GaAs market in 2009 was only slightly higher than 2008, the story that emerges is the strong industry recovery during the last three-quarters of the year,” noted Eric Higham, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Service.

“This growth is driven by consumer demand for new data-intensive applications, smartphones and the infrastructure that supports these capabilities. We expect these drivers to continue fueling growth through 2010.”