Forecasts for the 2017 semiconductor market are beginning to trickle in and, on the whole, they are much more positive than in the last three years. The last two years have shown no growth at all.

Mike Cowan predicts 4.7% growth for 2017;

WSTS predicts 3.3%;

Bill McLean’s IC Insights predicts 4%;

Bill Jewell’s Semiconductor Intelligence predicts 8%;

International Business Strategies (IBS) predicts 4.6%.

There’s no particular reason for the bullish expectancies except that the IMF expects world GDP growth to be 3.4% next year compared to 3.1% this year.

However the startling 11.6% jump in Q3 suggests there is pent up demand in some areas.

And a late jump in memory prices suggests that market may be under-supplied and higher-proved in 2017.

The much-vaunted IoT and wearables markets are making no noticeable contribution to growth reports Gartner.