Chip sales are booming

BRITISH BEANCOUNTERS at Future Horizons say that chip sales hit $24 billion in September.

This is a 20 per cent quarterly increase over the same period last year.

The increased sales mean that Future Horizons has had to revise its forecast for the 2009 chip market to a 10 per cent drop on last year. Previously it had been predicting a 14 per cent drop.

Malcolm Penn, chairman and CEO at Future Horizons, said that the new figures indicate that the market made a truly remarkable recovery, considering the abyss it was looking at this time last year.

"September's sales were even higher than our optimistic best expectations. This recovery now has a momentum of its own," he said.

The market rebound started at the end of the first quarter, with the second quarter coming in at 17 per cent sequential growth.

Penn said that psychologically this ought to give everyone a shot in the arm, but instead there's a strange air of disbelief and denial in the air.

He complained that the world was full of existential angst with no one believing in anything or anyone any more.

"I wish, really wish I was back running a chip division again. The competition's so befuddled you could walk all over anyone without even trying," he said.

Most CEOs are taking thepath of least resistance and continued to downsize, Future Horizons said. However it is clear that the market is in the middle of the recovery cycle.

Next year Future Horizons believes growth will be 22 per cent up on 2009, just based on 'normal' quarterly growth patterns. µ