Revenue from RF GaAs-enabled devices fell by nearly 6% in 2019, marking the biggest decline since 2004, reports Strategy Analytics.

The reason is  declining smartphone shipments but these will return to growth driving the RF GaAs market to around $9 billion by 2024.

The growth drivers will be 5G infrastructure and devices,

“Wireless applications, particularly cellular terminals, dominate GaAs device revenue,” says SA’s Eric Higham, “smartphones contain substantial GaAs content, so it was no surprise when declining shipments in 2019 pulled down the entire GaAs market.”

”Despite the uncertain COVID-19 implications, I remain optimistic that expanding deployments of 5G devices and networks will become the new growth engine for GaAs device revenue,” adds Higham, “we will be monitoring developments at GaAs handset PA manufacturers like Skyworks, Qorvo and Broadcom to get better clarity about the 5G growth trajectory.”