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SIA numbers show no subprime impact...yet |
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Sep 04, 2007 at 03:34 PM |
The latest monthly semiconductor sales figures from the Semiconductor Industry Assn.
show a continuation of the mostly upward recent trends, with overall income of $20.6 billion up a modest 2.2% over July 2006 and 3.2% over June 2007. Prices have moved up a bit in certain areas, while the diminution of DRAM and other memory prices has eased, with NAND flash prices actually increasing.
Although the Americas are still the only region bleeding red on the year-to-year tallies (down 6.2%), the U.S./Canada continuum actually leads the global pack in the month-to-month (+5.1%) and three-month rolling average (6.5%) tallies. That three-month figure is actually more than twice that of the next closest region's quarterly growth curve.
Lurking in the press release was a bit of (pre)cautionary commentary from SIA's George Scalise: "At this stage, it does not appear that the fall-out from problems in the subprime mortgage arena has had a significant impact on consumer purchases of electronic products. This is a concern that bears watching going forward."
God forbid that someone might choose to keep their house or condo, desperately trying to deal with ballooning mortgage payments and fend off foreclosure, rather than purchase an iPhone, Blu-ray disc player, laptop, flat-screen TV, and/or gaming station! Ah, the sacrifices that today's overextended technomaterialists must make.
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