Strong demand for cell phones and other consumer electronics drove a 9.4 percent increase in global chip sales in May, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported Monday. Total sales for the month were $19.7 billion, up from $18.1 billion last year.
"Worldwide sales ... continued to reflect generally favorable worldwide economic conditions," said George Scalise, SIA's president. "As consumer products drive an increasing proportion of microchip sales, the growth of the semiconductor industry more closely reflects overall economic growth."
Analog chip sales jumped by 21.5 percent during the month, while digital signal processors increased 13.7 percent. Both types of chips are used in mobile phones. Sales of PC microprocessors dropped 2 percent during the month, reflecting an inventory correction and aggressive pricing.
"Consumers continue to benefit from this competition, as the average selling price for a notebook computer has fallen below $1,000 for the first time ever," Scalise said.
The San Jose, California-based SIA has represented U.S. chip manufacturers since 1977.
Blue burner: BenQ Corp., Taiwan's top maker of cell phones and computer equipment, unveiled an optical disk writer which can handle the new Blu-ray high volume DVD storage format selling for $1,022 from August 2006.
A late August launch means that BenQ is one of the first electronics companies to sell a Blu-ray burner, simultaneously or even ahead of the main Blu-ray inventors and promoters Sony, Pioneer and Philips.
The price, including value added tax, is aggressive for the first generation of Blu-ray disk recorders. Products from competitors will be priced at up to $1,500, excluding VAT.
Low prices and early availability of Blu-ray devices are important in the emerging battle for the next DVD standard. Blu-ray is competing with the HD DVD format, led by Toshiba, which has started selling a player at $499. Blu-ray and HD DVD offer up to 50 gigabytes of storage on a DVD sized disk. Most Blu-ray and HD DVD players will also play back and burn CDs and standard DVDs.
Internet addicts: China has launched a campaign to enforce curfews at internet cafes before schools let students out on summer vacation, a news report said Monday.
The focus of the weeklong crackdown, launched Saturday, "is to prevent the entry of kids under the age of 18," said a Culture Ministry official quoted by the China Daily newspaper. It said violators could face penalties ranging from being shut down for 15 days to losing their license to operate.
Internet cafes are required to limit the hours that underage customers can spend online and only allow in a few minors at a time. Rules on children in Internet cafes were imposed after Chinese officials warned that students were spending too much time playing online games and were getting access to violent and obscene material.
All legal Mp3s?: The British music industry's trade group has been cleared to sue the controversial Russian music download site AllofMP3.com in London's High Court.
AllofMP3.com, which offers album downloads for as little as 1 pound ($1.85), is Britain's second-most popular online music service behind Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, according to one survey. The Russian site claims to be in compliance with local copyright laws, but music labels say they have not given permission for AllofMP3 to sell their songs.
The High Court has given its approval to serve legal proceedings against AllofMP3 and its owner Media Services in Russia ahead of a British court case, the British Phonographic Institute said in a statement on Monday. Earlier this year, U.S. lawmakers warned against signing a bilateral trade deal with Russia until Moscow moved to reduce intellectual property theft, including the shutdown of AllofMP3. Russian prosecutors are conducting their own investigation of the site.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
