SAN JOSE, Calif.–(Business Wire)–
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today reported that worldwide
semiconductor sales in February were $22.0 billion, a decrease of 1.3 percent
from January when sales were $22.3 billion. February sales grew by 56.2 percent
from February 2009 when sales were $14.1 billion. All monthly sales numbers
represent a three-month moving average.
“The February sales numbers reflect continued recovery of sales of
semiconductors, with demand principally driven by growth in sales of electronic
products in emerging economies,” said SIA President George Scalise. “Unit sales
of the two leading demand drivers for semiconductors – personal computers and
cell phones – are now projected to grow in the low- to mid-teens in 2010. While
the 56 percent year-on-year growth reflected in the February sales number is
encouraging, it is important to note that January and February of 2009 marked
the low point for the semiconductor industry during the worldwide economic
downturn.
“There are encouraging signs that the global economic recovery will continue,
and we remain cautiously optimistic that there is upside potential for growth
beyond our November forecast for 2010,” Scalise concluded.
About the SIA Global Sales Report
The SIA Global Sales Report (GSR) is a three-month moving average of sales
activity. The GSR is tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics
(WSTS) organization, an independent, non-profit organization established by the
global semiconductor industry to compile industry statistics. The moving average
is a mathematical smoothing technique that mitigates variations due to
differences in companies` financial calendars.
February 2010
Billions
Month-to-Month Sales
Market Last Month Current Month % Change
Americas 3.75 3.61 -3.7%
Europe 2.93 2.88 -1.8%
Japan 3.47 3.44 -1.1%
Asia Pacific 12.17 12.11 -0.4%
Total 22.32 22.04 -1.3%
Year-to-Year Sales
Market Last Year Current Month % Change
Americas 2.44 3.61 47.8%
Europe 2.11 2.88 36.5%
Japan 2.78 3.44 23.7%
Asia Pacific 6.78 12.11 78.6%
Total 14.11 22.04 56.2%
Three-Month-Moving Average Sales
Market Sep / Oct / Nov Dec / Jan / Feb % Change
Americas 3.89 3.61 -7.1%
Europe 3.02 2.88 -4.8%
Japan 3.84 3.44 -10.6%
Asia Pacific 11.96 12.11 1.3%
Total 22.71 22.04 -3.0%
About SIA
The SIA is the voice of the U.S. semiconductor industry, America`s second
largest exporter. SIA seeks to continue U.S. leadership in this critical sector
that employs 185,000 people in the U.S., and provides the enabling technology
for America`s $1.1-trillion high-tech industries with a U.S. workforce of nearly
6 million people. More information about the SIA can be found at
www.sia-online.org
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6237185〈=en
Semiconductor Industry Association
John Greenagel or Anne Craib, 408-436-6600
mailbox@sia-online.org
Copyright Business Wire 2010
Here’s how Zimbabwe’s blind cricket commentator Dean du Plessis bowls audiences
London, September 12 (ANI): He was born blind and has never seen a single match in his life, but has proved that all one requires to become a great cricket commentator is a mix of erudite descriptions of action, comprehensive knowledge of great players, faultless recall of statistics, and needle-sharp sense of timing and judgment.
Needless to say, Zimbabwean-born Dean du Plessis, 32, possesses all these attributes, and has been delivering commentaries on matches for nine years.
He has shared the commentary box in Tests, one-day, and Twenty20 tournaments involving all the Test-playing nations in worldwide radio broadcasts.
The commentators he has worked with include Tony Cozier, Geoffrey Boycott, Ravi Shastri, and Australia’s former spin bowler Bruce Yardley, who himself lost an eye.
In 2004, du Plessis and Yardley made the first ever team to deliver a commentary with a single eye between them.
It is du Plessis’s accentuated sense of hearing that makes up for being sightless.
He relies upon sounds heard via the stump microphones to tell who is bowling from the footfalls and grunts, a medium or fast delivery by the length of time between the bowler’s foot coming down, and the impact of the ball on the pitch.
He can tell whether a delivery was a yorker from the sound of the bat ramming down on the ball, whether a ball is on the off or on-side, and when it’s hit a pad rather than bat.
When the wicketkeeper’s voice goes flat, du Plessis tells him a draw is in the offing.
Though he can’t play the role in the commentary box of the anchor, du Plessis can tell from the crowd noise whether a ball has been gathered in a fielder’s hands or spilled.
“I have to work with the anchor. I am the guy who supplies, well, the colour,” Times Online quoted him as saying.
Andy Pycroft, the Zimbabwean opening batsman from 1979 to 2001, said: “The thing about Dean is the intuition. The public love to listen to him. If he has the right person at anchor to support him he is brilliant.”
Du Plessis hated the “blind cricket” he was taught to play with a plastic-wrapped volleyball at the blind school he attended.
At 14, while feeling bored one day, du Plessis tuned the radio in to a station devoted to ball-by-ball commentaries, and that was what was to change his life.
“There was a phenomenal noise in the background, 80,000 people in a stadium in India, people roaring. I realised it was cricket. I was fascinated,” du Plessis said.
He pushed his way into the commentary box at Harare Sports Club in 2001, and was allowed to try out with the microphone.
He never looked back. (ANI)