Still trying to get the hang of it
Hit hard by the recession, the semiconductor industry lost $40billion in 2008 and 2009, according to research company Gartner. But, in a recent report, the company hints that semiconductor companies haven't done themselves any favours in the past.
Noting the survival of the traditional large independent device manufacturer (IDM) model has been put in jeopardy for all but the largest logic manufacturers and major memory companies, Gartner says the move to so called asset lite manufacturing and to wider use of foundries will dramatically reduce the number of future fabs operating at the leading edge. But it believes the move will ensure industry wide profitability in the future.
The report claims 'Semiconductor manufacturers must learn to focus more on strategies to maintain margins, rather than increase market share at the expense of profitability'.
You would have thought that, after many decades of semiconductor manufacture, the industry would have got the hang of it by now. But it appears that's not the case.
