The successor to the chip book-to-bill ratio is a bit of a mouse, coming in a whole month and a bit after the event, but the US Semiconductor Industry Association now has all the numbers and reckons that worldwide sales of chips in January totaled $10.64bn, down 3.1% from the December figure. January sales were down 14.1% from the year-earlier total. In North and South America combined, January sales were down 2.8% at $3.43bn, in the AsiaPacific region, sales fell 3.8% to $2.25bn, in Japan, the fall was 3.6% to $2.69bn and in Europe, the fall was 2.8% to $2.27bn, the comparison being with the previous month in each case. The data is compiled by World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.
