Semiconductor market set for slowdown

Dr. Robert Castellano, The Information Network

NEW TRIPOLI, USA: On September 21 we issued the release below to all our readers. This was at a time when the semiconductor market was humming along and many "analysts" continued to up the ante in the market. For example, brilliant thinkers at iSuppli were quoted a month earlier in hundreds of web sites that a DRAM shortage was looming.

Nobody believed us. Well, maybe not nobody but few!

Fast forward another month and we reiterate the slowdown. This time, we have a lot of company and it's somewhat vindicating.

If you notice, I pointed out problems in the DRAM sector. Isn't it interesting that Nanya and Inotera both reported losses for 3Q10. Again, vindication for being slapped around by managers and shareholders in denial!

If you notice below, I also pointed out that we would be seeing problems in the semiconductor equipment market, particularly lithography. Isn't it interesting that ASML went out of its way in its Conference Call that they were not seeing any pushouts in purchases?

Interesting that ASML never bought our lithography report in the 25 years we are in business. It reminds me of when I pointed out last year that Intel was losing money on the Atom, and every Conference Call after that they said they were making money on the Atom (maybe Monopoly Money!), yet Intel never purchased our report on ARM versus Atom (ARM did!).

Has the Internet become such a marketing tool that multibillion dollar companies want to save a few thousand dollars and only read headlines instead of buying insightful marketing reports? Or maybe they are just buying from the wrong market research firms!