Gaming, Gadgets Spur Sales

Yahoo! News writes that "consumer gadgets -- MP3 players, video game machines and the like -- have become the fastest-growing source of sales" for semiconductor companies." The article looks at some of the factors impacting the industry.

Richard Gordon at Gartner said, "The hottest segment is digital consumer. And digital music players like the Apple iPod have been the hottest product. That will continue to be the case this year."

While the chip field is no longer a booming industry with revenue growth slowing from an annual rate of 17% a year as late as 2000 to rising at 11% a year currently, Gordon noted it's still growing "faster than most industries."

He said, "The global economy grows at 3%," and "chips are still a growth market compared with the overall economy." According to Gartner, the firm predicts the "2006 chip forecast to 9.5% growth over 2005. That would put sales at $258 billion."