Rick Hill calls it "drinking each other's bathwater" -
I hope Rick will take his Zoloft prior to providing mid quarter update
Gartner sees 10.6 pct rise in 2006 chip sales
Wed Jun 7, 2006 1:19pm ET15
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By Scott Hillis
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 7 (Reuters) - Worldwide sales of microchips are expected to rise 10.6 percent this year, driven by mobile phones and laptop computers, but growth will peak in 2008, research firm Gartner Dataquest said on Wednesday.
Sales growth of chips, also known as semiconductors, is expected to accelerate to 14 percent in 2008, before stalling in 2009, when the rate will rise less than 1 percent, Gartner said in a mid-year update of its industry forecast.
The predictions reflect a growing view that the industry, once subject to extreme boom-bust cycles, is on a track of slower, but more stable growth as chips find their way into a vast array of consumer products.
"These numbers also reflect a PC transition from desktop to laptop," said Andrew Phillips, Gartner's managing vice president of semiconductor research. "Laptops have become more fashionable, and replacement in that market is certainly growing."
Gartner said personal computer shipments would increase 9.8 percent in 2006 and stay above 9 percent through 2009. Within that, laptop unit sales were seen rising nearly 26 percent this year, but would slow to just over 14 percent in 2010.
Shipments of mobile telephones would rise 18 percent in 2006, driven by emerging markets and the transition to the latest generation of phones capable of handling video and Internet services, the research group said.
Capital expenditures were expected to rise 8.8 percent this year, and Phillips said the amount of production capacity added over the next couple of years would determine the severity of the next downturn.
"2009 is difficult to forecast...because it is the capital expenditure plans that are being made at the moment that will have the greatest impact on 2009," Phillips said.
New semiconductor facilities typically take two years to build.
Earlier, the Semiconductor Industry Association issued its own forecasts for this year and next, predicting that 2006 sales would grow 9.8 percent, then rise 11 percent in 2007. |
