Month-to-Month Sales in $Billions
Market	April '05	May '05	June '05	July '05	Aug. '05
Americas	3.22	3.20	3.17	3.13	3.24
Europe	3.32	3.19	3.12	3.05	3.08
Japan	3.71	3.62	3.55	3.57	3.60
Asia Pacific	7.90	8.04	8.14	8.27	8.67
Total	18.15	18.05	17.98	18.01	18.58

Source: Semiconductor Industry Association: Oct. 3, 2005

Chip Sales Show Continued Strength

Chip sales surged in August to $18.58 billion over July. The results were an improvement of 1.7% over August of 2004. Meanwhile, sales to the Asia Pacific region were strongest geographically, showing a 4.8% month-to-month increase and a 13% year-over-year increase. But August sales were slower over the same period a year ago in the Americas, Europe, and Japan. What's driving the overall surge? Sales of personal computers have been ahead of forecasts, leading to strong consumption of microprocessors and DRAM memory chips, while sales of flash memory chips, particularly for use in MP3 players and cell phones, were also strong. Chip sales for the first eight months of the year have totaled $144.4 billion, versus $136.5 billion for the same period in 2004.

Posted: 10/12/05

Also see:

March of the Flash Chips