Soggy memory market hits chip sales

FALLING MEMORY sales significantly slowed the growth of the global semiconductor market in 2007 according to twitchers at Isuppli.

The flimsiness in the memory chip market means that 2007 now falls short of previous expectations regarding global semiconductor market revenues, which had been high based on the figures in 2006.

Isuppli reckons that global semiconductor market revenue grew only 3.3 per cent in 2007, short of the 4.1 per cent prediction. Memory chip revenue also took a tumble, falling 11 per cent. DRAM revenues dropped 19.1 per cent in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter, whilst NAND flash revenues slumped 3.9 per cent in the same quarter.

Nanya and Qimonda were hit particularly hard, with their memory IC revenues plummeting 32.4 per cent and 26 per cent respectively for the year. AMD, who did well in 2006, also suffered a financial hit in 2007. Nvidia managed to climb a few places in the table, as did Intel, which clung to first place, followed closely by Samsung.

Dale Ford, senior VP at Isuppli said the situation was "a complete role reversal for memory semiconductors compared to 2006.” Sales of memory integrated circuits had helped prop up the growth of the overall semi market, he said.

Application specific standard products and ASICs experienced the most growth out of all the semiconductor segments in 2007, increasing revenues by 12.9 per cent. The main factors contributing to this growth being Sony and Toshiba with their sales of semiconductors for the Playstation3 game console. µ

L'Inq
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