The figures, based on statistics gathered by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and representing a three-month moving average of chip shipments, were slightly ahead of expectations.

Sales were up sequentially in all geographic regions although Europe is responding more slowly while the Americas region market is back almost where it was one year ago. Global year-to-date sales through August are down 21.3 percent to $133.8 billion from $170.1 billion at this time last year, SIA said.

"Continuing recovery of consumer spending led the sixth-consecutive month of sequential growth in semiconductor sales," said George Scalise, president of the SIA, in a statement. "Various incentive programs for energy-efficient products, ranging from automobiles to home appliances, have bolstered demand for semiconductors, which deliver critical enabling technology for reducing energy consumption."

"Growing sales of netbook personal computers, which now account for approximately 17 percent of notebook PC unit sales, have created an important new market segment, filling a gap between smart cellphones and conventional laptop PCs," Scalise continued. "Personal computers have become especially attractive to consumers as average selling prices for PCs have declined by around 14 percent while memory content has increased by 25 percent during the past year. This translates into significantly more computing power at a significantly lower price." Scalise noted that consumers now account for approximately 50 percent of all PC unit sales. "Notwithstanding the slow recovery of demand from the enterprise sector, we are encouraged that industry momentum has turned positive following the steepest downturn in more than a decade," Scalise concluded. The SIA publishes WSTS numbers as a three-month average. It argues that this smoothes out the data which would otherwise display the effects of in-quarter reporting that tend to treat March, June, September and December as five-week months.

Related links and articles:

www.wsts.org

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