2005 -difficult year for IC industry

Vendors and analysts at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Francisco are showing a pessimistic mood for the IC industry in 2005. "We would characterize the mood (at ESC) as less than excited, but upbeat," said Doug Freedman, an analyst at American Technology Research Inc. "There does not appear to be a rush to introduce new products, a condition that only occurs when end markets and competition heats up," Freedman said in a report. "It seems that we are in a period of stable end market share, which we would characterize as healthy but not conducive to robust semiconductor revenue growth." Richard Tobias, vice president of Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. was even more pessimistic: "It's going to be closer to flat growth for the semiconductor industry this year". "This is going to be a difficult year", he said.