Last month, the U.S. set a record for the longest uninterrupted period of economic growth - 108 months, beginning in March 1991. Worldwide semiconductor shipments in January, reported by WSTS, were up 32.7 percent from January 1999. Asia Pac led the regions with a 42.7 percent growth, followed by Japan with 38.1 percent.
All signals point to a solid year in the semiconductor industry.
That was, in fact, the consensus among the industry executives who attended Semico s annual conference, The Semico Summit, earlier this month. For those of you who missed it, the mood was definitely upbeat as attendees discussed the promise of emerging technologies, continued expansion, and new strategies for success. While emerging technologies are usually fraught with excitement, sometimes it s easy to overlook the impact that existing end-use applications can have on the market. This month s Tracker takes a look at printers - laser, inkjet, and dot matrix. Overall, the printer market continues to expand as printer manufacturers product lines become stronger and deeper than ever.