Wireless/DSP market bulletin

USA: Here is the latest wireless/DSP market bulletin from Forward Concepts, USA.

Cellphone shipments: Better than you thought!

Although anecdotal evidence would lead one to assume there has been a slowdown in cellphone chip shipments, the May 2008 shipments reported by WSTS argue differently. May shipments of DSP and RISC chips for cellphones were up 8 percent over April, as depicted in the first chart below.

Note that May shipments were up a considerably higher 47 percent over May of last year. The second chart shows monthly cellphone DSP and RISC shipments through May, which is the second month in the quarter. If past history is an indicator, the third month of any quarter (June in this case) is always the highest and the trend line portends a good month.

Wireless infrastructure: Also better than expected

Although DSP shipments for wireless infrastructure were down 14 percent in May compared to April, that was still 30 percent higher than May of 2007, as illustrated in the left chart below.  Month-to-month comparisons are not as meaningful as quarterly comparisons, but for the curious, we compare May to April in the right chart.

What is striking is that DSP shipments for the consumer market (mostly consumer electronics) continues to show strength while automotive, wired communications and storage (disk drive controllers) remain in the tank.

The overall, DSP shipments (not including cellphones) were down 3 percent for the month, but up 14 percent over the previous May. Multipurpose tends to be catalog products and sales through distributors, so it is a bit more volatile than the other categories.

When June shipments are reported, we'll have better calibration for the second quarter and the first half.

The author is President & Principal Analyst, Forward Concepts