SIA reports growth in Nov 2009

Signs that the technology sector might be finally pulling itself out of the financial quagmire left by the global financial crisis made themselves known, with figures from the Semiconductor Industry Association showing year-on-year growth for the first time since the recession began.

As reported over on The Register, the industry body has unveiled figures which show that the semiconductor industry has grown 8.5 percent in November 2009 on revenues of $22.6 billion (£14 billion), based on the same period in 2008.

While the news is certainly good for a sector which has suffered from the slowing global economy, the fact that the figures released are for November is somewhat telling: this time last year the SIA revealed that November 2008's figures showed a 9.6 percent decline year-on-year, meaning that while the sector has undeniably enjoyed growth towards the end of 2009 it has yet to hit the highs it enjoyed this time two years ago.

Despite this, the SIA's president George Scalise is upbeat about the figures: "for the first time in 2009, worldwide semiconductor sales in November were in positive territory compared to one year ago."

Scalise believes that the growth is attributable in no small part to "the release of the Windows 7 operating system in October," and an increase of 25 to 30 percent in the sale of LCD TVs throughout 2009.

The figures will come as good news to any semiconductor manufacturers looking for something to give the shareholders confidence, but the industry still has a way to go before it's out of the financial woods.

Are you surprised to see semconductor manufacturers having taken this long to reach a period of growth again, or are you just pleased that the tech sector might finally have some money to spend on R&D again? Share your thoughts over in the forums.