The Semiconductor Industry Association reported Monday that chip sales took a devastating 2.4 percent drop in October from a year earlier.
Then the trade group offered an even more dire outlook for next year. It projected personal computer shipments would sink 5 percent and cell phone shipments would tumble 9 percent due to the economic downturn.
The outlook from the normally ebullient SIA is among the most severe for the year ahead. “The worldwide financial turmoil is expected to continue to impact demand for semiconductors as we enter 2009,” said President George Scalise. “PCs and cell phones account for approximately 60 percent of total demand for semiconductors.”
The SIA said sales of memory chips fell especially hard in October. Sales of NAND flash chips, used in music players and digital cameras, plummeted 41 percent while sales of DRAM chips used in computers decreased 14 percent.
Excluding memory, semiconductor sales were up 3.8 percent in October 2007, but down from September of this year. The chip industry employs more than 200,000 people in the U.S.
October chip sales fall
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