Consumer Products Still Driving Sales, SIA Confirms
Online staff -- EDN, January 3, 2006
Worldwide sales of semiconductors continued growing at a record pace to reach $20.4 billion in November, up 7.2 percent year over year and 1.7 percent sequentially, according to the San Jose-based Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today.
gStrong holiday season sales of consumer products such as cell phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players drove record sales of semiconductors in November,h noted SIA president George Scalise, in a statement.
gSales of flash memory devices -- a key component in many hand-held consumer products -- were up by 33 percent from November 2004. Sales of application-specific standard circuits, another proxy for consumer products, were up by nearly 34 percent year-on-year,h he continued.
gThe main story of 2005 is one of the growing importance of consumers in driving sales of semiconductors. A recently published list of the egreatest gadgetsf of the past 50 years was dominated by products made possible by semiconductors. The growing pervasiveness of microchips in everyday products and a strong underlying economy have combined to create a very favorable climate for the microelectronics industry,h Scalise added.
On a three-month moving average of sales, overall activity rose 9.8 percent in the September through November period to $20.4 billion from $18.6 billion in the June through August period. The Americas region registered the highest growth rate increase of 14.9 percent, followed closely by Europe at 14.7 percent, then Asia Pacific at 8.2 percent with Japan at 4.6 percent.
The SIAfs three-month moving sales average is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization, which represents approximately 66 companies, and is a mathematical smoothing technique that mitigates variations due to companies' financial calendars, the association concluded.
