Cellphone market is the largest electronic systems market

The report, titled ‘IC Market Drivers - A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits’, found that the cellphone market has overtaken the PC market as the largest electronic systems market and as the largest end-use IC application, accounting for 25% of total integrated circuit sales in 2014 compared to standard PCs, which represented 21%.

In 2014, cellphone handsets are expected to account for 18% of worldwide electronic systems sales ($265.2bn), while standard PCs are forecast to represent for 13% ($196.0bn). In 2013, PCs accounted for 15% of worldwide systems sales, while cellphones represented slightly less than 18%. In 2014, tablet sales are expected to account for 6% of systems revenues compared to 5% in 2013, while dollar volumes for IoT functions (embedded in end-use applications) are forecast to represent 3% of the total electronics market, up slightly from 2013.

Cellphone integrated circuit sales are expected to increase by 11% in 2014, growing from $63.5bn in 2013 to $70.7bn. In 2015, cellphone IC sales are forecast to increase by another 11%, reaching $78.4bn. After experiencing a decrease in both 2012 and 2013, standard PC IC sales are expected to increase by 4%, reaching $59.1 bn. In 2015, PC IC sales are forecast to grow by 2%.

Between 2013 and 2018, IC sales growth is expected to be the strongest in subsystems for the IoT (a CAGR of 22.3%), wireless networks (19.7%), and tablet computers (17.4%).