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January semiconductor sales jump 33 percent
By Bloomberg News
March 8, 2000, 12:40 p.m. PT
URL: news.cnet.com
"Worldwide sales of semiconductors jumped by a third in January to $14.8 billion on increasing demand for chips that power mobile phones, the Semiconductor Industry Association said.
January sales rose from $11.1 billion in the year-earlier period, and topped the $14.7 billion in sales in December.
Personal computers aren't driving demand for computer chips as they have in the past. Flash memory, which retains information after a cell phone or PC is turned off, and digital signal processors, which convert signals like light into digital computer language, outpaced sales growth of other semiconductors.
"The chip industry is off to a strong start," said George Scalise, president of the San Jose, Calif-based association.
Sales surged 46 percent in the Asia Pacific market and rose 43 percent in Japan, building on the region's emergence from
economic crises that had bogged down buying.
Chipmakers like Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, IBM, and Motorola are competing to make chips for mobile phones and
handheld computing devices.
In the next few years, more cell phones and handheld devices will be linked to the Internet than PCs, IBM has said.
Monthly figures from the association are three-month moving averages. To get January 2000 sales, the group tallies November,December and January and divides by three." |
