Stat Shot: Have Chips Sales Hit Bottom?
The Semiconductor Industry Association said today that global chip sales reversed course during the month of March, rising to $14.7 billion from $14.2 billion the month before. But while there are encouraging signs that we may have reached the bottom in some industries — that chip buyers have used up the inventory they had on hand and are now ready to buy — there’s no evidence that chip sales will continue growing in the near term.
And the overall numbers are still pretty grim. Sales for the first quarter of 2009 amounted to $44 billion, a 29.9 percent decline from first-quarter 2008 sales of $62.8 billion and a 15.7 percent drop from the fourth quarter of 2008, when they came in at $52.2 billion.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
Stacey, you have got to be kidding – “there’s no evidence that chip sales will continue growing in the near term.”
Acer said today that they will be shipping their computers with Windows 7 in October -
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217201135&subSection=News
The machines will have to already be loaded with chips, so look for a big pick-up in chip sales in the next few months – across the board from Acer, Dell, HP, etc.
Dee, this data includes worldwide semiconductor sales. While PC sales may have hit bottom, there are plenty of other industries such as telecommunications and automotive that are still lagging. So we may not see real growth until other industries pick up, although PC and handset sales are some of the encouraging signs I point to.
So are you saying that the Palm Pre and new iPhone, as well as others (Android) won’t push a pick-up later this year?
I’m saying that the rise in handset and PC chips may not be enough to offset the continued pain in other markets, which means that there’s no certainty that global chip sales will grow. They could stay flat. IF they sink, I don’t think they’ll sink a lot given that PCs and cell phones are such a large end market for chips.
I’m wondering if singe chip solutions will lower revenue as well because of their lower price when compared to let’s say 3 single chips (WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, whatever)