Strong demand for chips used to make PCs, netbooks and cell phones kept semiconductor manufacturers busy in February, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, however total sales actually took a small step backwards from January.
Hardware Central takes a look at the latest worldwide semiconductor numbers and explains why most industry pundits are predicting solid, sustained growth through the rest of 2010.
Chipmakers in the Asia Pacific and Americas regions benefitted most from increasing demand from OEMs building the next generation of smartphones, tablet PCs and standard handsets.
Semiconductor sales pulled back a tad in February, but strong demand for chips used for PCs and cell phones helped push worldwide chips sales up more than 56 percent from the same month last year.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), total sales fell to $22 billion in February, down from $22.3 billion (1.3 percent) in January. However, those sales marked a 56.2 percent increase from the $14.1 billion recorded in February 2009, a good indicator of just how muchthe chip industry suffered through the teeth of the recession.