Chip sales jump in May

Booming cell phone and consumer electronics sales were driving semiconductor sales in May. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), chip sales came in at $19.7 billion, which translated in a 9.4% increase year-over-year and 0.7% sequentially.

"Worldwide sales of semiconductors in May continued to reflect generally favorable worldwide economic conditions," said SIA president George Scalise. "As consumer products drive an increasing proportion of microchip sales, the growth of the semiconductor industry more closely reflects overall economic growth. Sales of cell phones and other consumer electronics products once again were the principal contributors to growth in semiconductor sales."

According to the SIA, particular strong semiconductor segments included analog chips (+21.5%), digital signal processors (13.7%), NOR Flash (unspecified gains) and DRAM (13.7%). Microprocessors maintained their trend of declining revenues. The SIA said that sales fell about 2% in May, reflecting "both robust competition and some inventory corrections in this major market segment." Consumers benefit from this scenario with average selling prices of notebooks dropping below the $1000 mark for the first time ever.

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