Feast-or-famine cycles that characterised the semiconductor industry in the 1970s and 1980s have been replaced by a period of strong demand that will continue indefinitely, Dr Charles Boucher, senior analyst at Hambrecht & Quist told the company’s 23rd annual Technology Conference in San Francisco last week, at which there were 2,000 attendees gathered: the emergence of the personal computer as an essential tool for business, increased demand for digital electronic systems – and the higher semiconductor content within these systems, plus increasing globalisation of the industry, indicate sustainable strong demand for semiconductors; the analyst said semiconductor companies that will benefit most from the current growth phase are those positioned best in the transition to Pentium-based systems; in the growth in digital multimedia systems and services in the personal compuyer and consumer markets; and in growth of high bandwidth tele- and data communications systems.
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Oracle Corp said growth over the next several years at its software applications business could accelerate over its third-quarter growth rate of 65%: the company said the Bell Atlantic Corp video-on-demand trial, which made use of its multimedia software (CI No 2,329), had finished and 1,000 users were expected by the end of June; chief financial officer Jeff Henley reckons Oracle has several years’ advantage over its competitors in the video-on-demand arena and that the corporate market for the technology could prove to be a big opportunity for Oracle; he dismissed suggestions that the company wasn’t committed to the segment; he also told the conference that Oracle had an excellant chance to continue growing its database business faster than competitors, partly as a result of the continued expansion of Oracle’s sales force, and that it will accelerate its pace of contract wins over competitor Sybase Inc because of customer concerns that Sybase’s database won’t scale, or work with faster computer servers; and he added that Oracle’s new Windows-based software tools will be a bigger product a year from now than is Sybase’s Powerbuilder.
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3Com Corp energised its share price after it told the attendees that it expected to see 25% to 30% revenue growth from the enterprise data market, and the shares added $4 to $58.625 on Thursday – but this may have been more a reflection of the greenness of some of the attendees, many of whom were sitting in at such an event for the first time, than on anything new it what the company said; 3Com also promised several low-priced, switching and network products in the next few months, and said it expected these to drive sales: 3Com wants to grow revenues faster than the market.
