22pc 2010 growth is now minimum; a '30pc number' is now on radar

UK: According to Future Horizons, November’s IC sales continued the year-end rally, down just 2.4 percent on October, up 29.3 percent vs. November 2008. This confirms our earlier prediction that Q4-09 sales would be up around 6.4 percent on Q3-09, one of the strongest year end-closes on record - Q4 sequential growth is typically ‘zero plus minus 2 percent’.

This confirms that 2009 will come in close to our minus 10 percent forecast, most probably at minus 9.7 percent, setting 2010 up for a bumper double-digit growth year. Only a Lehman Brothers-type event can now derail the recovery, the future is bright, and not before time too.

For far too long now doom and gloom has spoilt the chip market horizons. Industry faith has been stretched beyond the limit. We're off to a fine start entering 2010.