IC distributors have indicated that they saw brisk demand from downstream customers in the past two months in preparation for the Christmas season. The better-than-expected demand means that Christmas sales in December may be strong.
Apart from demand for popular consumer and mobile electronics such as tablet PCs and smartphones, the distributors noted that they also received more windfall orders from the notebook sector.
The distributors said they completed all the deliveries for Christmas orders in September and October, and their current inventory levels already have returned to normal. If actual sales in the European and US markets turn out to be better than the estimations by makers of consumer products, the IC distributors expect to see another injection of orders between November and December.
Judging from the recently increasing orders, the distributors estimate that major foundry chipmakers should be able to maintain their fourth-quarter revenues at the same levels as those in the previous quarter. If this year's Christmas sales turn out to be stronger than expected and the momentum can be carried into the first quarter of 2011, those foundry companies' first-quarter revenues are expected to drop by less than 5% sequentially, according to the distributors.
Article translated by Jessie Shen
