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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (39766)	6/19/2003 12:19:01 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71620

UPDATE - RF Micro CFO sees possible cell phone sales pickup Wednesday June 18, 4:21 pm ET (Adds closing stock action in paragraph 4) CHICAGO, June 18 (Reuters) - The chief financial officer of RF Micro Devices Inc. (NasdaqNM:RFMD - News) on Wednesday said he is optimistic cell phone sales will pick up later this year despite weakness in Asia that has hurt demand for the company's semiconductors. ADVERTISEMENT "We are beginning to see things pick back up," said Dean Priddy at a Thomas Weisel Partners conference in Santa Barbara, California. He said companies like his are often leading indicators for the cell phone market's future performance. RF Micro, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, counts the three largest makers of cell phones -- Nokia (NOK1V.HE) (NYSE:NOK - News), Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - News) and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KSE:05930.KS - News) -- as its largest customers. RF Micro's stock closed up 61 cents, or 10.8 percent, at $6.28 in Wednesday Nasdaq trading. Other wireless chipmakers also saw their stocks rise -- shares of TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. (NasdaqNM:TQNT - News) and Anadigics Inc. (NasdaqNM:ANAD - News) were up 7.3 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively. Several cell phone makers have warned of lower financial results due to the SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, virus and too much inventory in Asia, especially China. Priddy, however, said things may be getting better already. "I'm not saying it's a full recovery. It may be a little too early to call that," he said. "However, we are definitely seeing signs of improvement in the component sector." He added he is "cautiously optimistic" that cell phone sales will improve in the second half of the year. Priddy said order rates have risen "pretty dramatically" in the last few weeks, and he pointed to a barrage of new cell-phone models that manufacturers plan to introduce in the second half of the year. Priddy said it was too early to provide financial forecasts for the September quarter.