Analyst outfit Gartner has been consulting its tarot cards and decided that worldwide semiconductor revenue will continue to drop next year.

After consulting the tea leaves Gartner said worldwide semiconductor revenue will total US $219.2 billion in 2009, which is a 16.3 percent decline from 2008 revenue. Consulting the liver of a white bull, Gartner said that there will be revenue for the industry of US $261.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, which is a 4.4 percent decline from 2007.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue was expected to grow 0.2 percent in 2008 and for the market to decline 2.2 percent in 2009, said Big G after throwing the runes. Channeling the spirit of Nostradamus, Gartner said that the financial crisis "is having an unprecedented negative impact on fourth quarter 2008 sales and profits."

Semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 show a record quarter-on-quarter decline of 24.4 percent, surpassing the 20 percent decline record set in the second quarter of 2001.

Gartner said the "wild card" for the semiconductor industry in 2009 is sales of DRAM chips, which have been slumping for 18 months. The DRAM market is so doomed that suppliers must either significantly scale back supply, or the weaker players will be forced into mergers or bankruptcy.

But in the second half of 2009 the DRAM market will pick up and peace will guide our planet and love will rule the stars, or something.