May 2, 2006 – Increasing demand for a wide range of business and consumer technologies will drive semiconductor demand in Asia above the $200 billion mark by 2010, up from $136.5 billion in 2005, according to a new report from In-Stat.

Since the 2001 downturn, electronics manufacturing has shifted from the US and Europe toward the Asia-Pacific region, but now the Asian end markets are beginning to flex their muscles too, with increasing demand for mobile phones, telecommunications infrastructures, digital TVs, DVD players, and digital audio products, noted Prakash Vaswani, In-Stat analyst, in a statement.

In its latest report, In-Stat also predicts that by 2010, Asia’s semiconductor consumption will have increased to fully two-thirds of global semiconductor demand, vs. 60% in 2005. The firm also pointed out that China has become the largest market for semiconductors globally, while other Asian countries such as India and Thailand are also showing strong growth.