Selling prices for flash memory integrated circuits have taken a recent hit because of an inventory build that will take months to work down. "There's been a definite downward trend over the past few months," says Steve Grossman, senior vice president and general manager at Hyundai Semiconductor's flash memory unit in San Jose, Calif. Reason: Sales have nose-dived from such key markets as cellular telephones, telecommunications infrastructure, computer peripherals (CD-ROMs, disk drives and keyboards) and networking infrastructure. Flash IC revenue grew 129% last year, says IC Insights, which forecasts sales growth of no more than 38% this year.

Oversupply will lead to lower prices for some discrete power components, suggests market analyst John M. Trice at iSuppli Corp. in El Segundo, Calif. Softening demand will catch up with recent capacity expansions for analog circuits used in power control and voltage regulation and for low-voltage MOSFETs used in battery-operated portable systems. A significant inventory build in the supply chain will depress average selling prices, Trice predicts.

PC price war looms. Dataquest says the battle for market share will force personal computer makers to drop prices in what has suddenly become a slow growth market. The research group predicts PC manufacturers will ship 144.5 million desktop and laptop PCs in 2001, compared to 130.5 million last year. That would put the 2001 growth rate at 11%, compared to nearly 14% in 2000 and 22% in 1999. Researcher Martin Reynolds says the group anticipates a U.S. price war as direct sellers Dell and Gateway endeavor to gain market share from Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. He says the price war will come as component suppliers accept lower margins.