Sequential growth spots inflections earlier than year-over-year does, because it does not average a change over four quarters. Semiconductor and hardware analysts live on it.
It only means something if you know the normal seasonal shape. A retailer shrinking 40% from the fourth quarter to the first is having an ordinary year, not a collapse. Compare the sequential move with the same sequential move in prior years.
Example: Northwind Tools does $228M in the fourth quarter and $196M in the first, a 14% sequential decline. The prior year's same step was down 19%, so the underlying trend improved.
Related: year-over-year, guidance, earnings-report, revenue, run-rate-note