Infineon head honcho Peter Bauer said in an interview with German business paper Handelsblatt  that the times of two-digit growth in the chip industry are dead and buried. Bauer told the newspaper that the 15% average growth rates of the last years are going to go down the drain, as the industry matures and chips have more or less finally penetrated into each and every device and gadget which makers consumers happy.

Bauer blames the price wars between chip makers for the retiring growth rate which leads to company growth rates slowing down, even though shipments are still rising. However, shipments aren't what they used to be back before the dotcom bubble popped at the turn of the millennium.

Infineon and its competitors now have to concentrate on cost and productivity management and on R&D conjuring up 'innovative solutions,' such as energy-efficient chips. Apart from conjuring 'innovative solutions,' specialty chip makers will continue appearing around the world, which means the market won't be entirely dominated by five big behemoths and a number of baby behemoths.

Bauer added that Infineon is also tightly-enmeshed with car builders and the industrial electronics industry, which are big players and world-leading industries based in Europe. As both industries contribute a ton to Infineon's business, the company will stay glued in Europe and not move to Asia, although certain tasks such as packaging will be performed on the other side of the globe.

The interview can be found here. X