The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Monday that worldwide chip sales in October came in at $10.43 billion, a 2.5 percent month-over-month increase from September's $10.18 billion figure.
The slight rise in sequential sales--the first since November 2000, according to the SIA--is a positive note for the otherwise depressed chip industry.
However, October's sales were still well below those in October 2000, a point that analysts latched onto Monday. Although the chip market is improving, they said, it's nowhere near what could be called a recovery---at least not yet.
October's sales were down 44 percent from October 2000, according to the SIA, which actually uses a three-month average of revenues to help account for companies' different quarterly financial reporting schedules.
Compared in a more direct year-to-year manner by analyst firm Lehman Brothers, October 2001's sales declined by 43 percent when measured against October 2000--a figure that is actually worse than September 2001's 41 percent drop in sales vs. September 2000.
News source: ZDnet
