The Times They Are A Changin'......

The Times They Are A Changin' The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin'. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin'. From Bob Dylan - who else? :-) An article in today's issue of EE Times highlights a trend we have been talking about for a while: Evolving IC Industry Being Shaped by New Forces. I suppose wide acknowledgment means that the great awakening is finally taking place. Here's a snip from the article: The extent to which the consumer driver permeates current thinking around Greater Silicon Valley was apparent from rumblings that emerged in a series of electronics association and analyst briefings this reporter attended last week in New York, San Jose and San Francisco. Once the indisputable volume driver of semiconductor unit shipments, the PC has been eclipsed by a range of non-PC applications, including cellphones, automotive and consumer digital products that will account for more nearly 32 percent of all 2005's unit volume. PCs, by contrast, will account for only about 10.5 percent of semiconductor unit shipments. Consumerization..... Commoditization..... Wider proliferation (hopefully)... It's been going on for years. SIA President George Scalise warns, "....a consumer-driven electronics industry's comes with its own unique risks." There's no doubt about that. The risks are enormous - especially when you consider the leveraged state of the consumer. It is this trend that has prompted us to chart Retail Electronic Store Sales vs. IC Units. See chart below: