FRAMINGHAM, MA – Worldwide semiconductor sales will grow 4.8% this year, before rebounding to 8.1% in 2008, IDC says.

2007 sales are down from 8.8% last year, in part because of inventory and pricing issues. However, IDC expects growth to resume at 8.1% in 2008. An even healthier outcome could be realized, should capacity expansion be tempered next year and growth in demand remain strong, the company says.

Elsewhere, IDC says, market trends point to ongoing mergers and acquisitions that will reshape the landscape and bring traditional suppliers to the forefront.

According to IDC, PC and mobile phone unit volume is steady, led by emerging regions and low-end products; consumer demand is lackluster, but excess inventory has subsided, and design momentum will lead to substantial volume growth during the holiday season.

A severe price correction in the first half leveled the market for memory devices, such as DRAM and NAND. And the microprocessor market remains flat, the firm reports.

IDC’s forecasts emerging regions will boost semiconductor volume growth; multimedia-rich mobile phones continue to drive semiconductor content and demand for processing, memory consumption, and power management; personal computing further migrates toward mobility and low-priced form factors; video processing proliferates across multiple consumer electronic segments, resulting in strong growth for semiconductor suppliers; semiconductor connectivity technologies drive new usage models across device segments, and growth in personal content implies increasing need for storage, including NAND.

In 2006, the top 10 semiconductor vendors accounted for 48% of the worldwide market revenue, says IDC. Intel, Samsung and Texas Instruments held on to the top three positions, with TI showing the highest growth percentage in revenue among the top three. With the exception of Intel, Renesas and NXP, all other vendors in IDC's top 10 ranking showed positive growth. Hynix grew an amazing 43% year-over-year.