2009 Chip Sales Not Nearly So Bad as They Could Have Been

After spending most of the past year buried deep in the mud, the chip industry has almost managed to pull itself out with the help of a boost in consumer spending. According to the latest metrics from Gartner, semiconductor industry revenue will end the year down 11.4 percent from 2008.

That’s a decline of $29 billion. A nasty drop, but nowhere nearly as gruesome as the 24 percent drop the research outfit predicted at the beginning of the year.

Seems renewed consumer interest in PCs, as well as cars and cellphones, has driven some fairly significant quarter-over-quarter growth. That said, 2009 is still among the worst years for the semiconductor industry since the Great Dark Times of 2001–and the first time the sector posted declines two years running.