The chips are down?

The world’s second-largest chipmaker, Samsung Electronics, has warned that it expects global chip sales in 2005 to grow at half of this year’s pace, as increased supply hits prices. Rivals Intel and Texas Instruments have issued similarly gloomy projections, with both companies lowering their sales forecasts this month as the demand for chips used in personal computers slows. According to market researcher Isuppli, computer shipments will increase 13% this year to 191 million units, whilst sales of mobile phones will grow 20% to 625 million units.