The DSP market is healthy, with double digit growth rates for both revenue and shipments. The mobile phone market continues to generate more DSP revenue than all other applications combined.
 
The DSP market is valued at $7.4 billion this year, making it one of the smallest semiconductor product markets. In fact, DSP only accounts for about 3 percent of the $277 billion semiconductor market, ahead of only sensors. Within the microcomponents market (DSP, microprocessors, microcontrollers), DSP is the fastest growing product, although it is far behind the other products in terms of revenue, accounting for only 12 percent of the market.
 
Databeans expects 1.6 billion DSPs to be shipped this year and over 3.3 billion shipments by year 2013, representing an average growth rate of 16 percent per year. As average selling prices are expected to consistently drop over the forecast period, revenues will see a smaller, but still strong, growth rate of 11 percent. Like many other semiconductor products, DSP revenues largely come from countries in the Asia Pacific region, which accounts for 65 percent of all DSP sales.
 
The major application for DSP is in mobile phones, however, a DSP can be found in a number of other electronic devices in varied applications. Audio systems such as personal media players and automotive audio systems utilize DSP, while video and imaging applications in the consumer and medical markets are also important for the DSP market.