Mobile chip sales are expected to surpass PC chip

Market research company IC Insights recently released the latest research report, indicating that mobile chip sales will exceed PC chips for the first time next year.

The falling sales of desktop PCs have made mobile chip sales a dominant player in the chip sales market. IC Insights categorizes PC chip sales as desktop computer chips, notebook chips, cross-border product chips, and sales of thin client-style system chips such as the Chromebook.

IC Insights expects mobile chip sales, including smartphone chips, to surpass PC chips for the first time in the report. In the past 20 years, PC chip sales accounted for nearly one-third of the total chip market sales. It is estimated that the proportion of PC chip sales this year will fall to a quarter, and by 2016 will be less than one-fifth. At the same time, sales of mobile chips have soared. It is expected that mobile chip sales will account for 24% of total chip market sales this year and will increase to 32% in 2016.

Smartphone sales in developed countries are strong, and the industry generally expects smartphone sales in emerging markets to increase significantly in the next few years.

The report predicts that the entire PC chip sales will continue to grow until 2016. It is estimated that by 2016, desktop PC chip sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 0.1%, and notebook chip sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4%. The sales of chips supporting Chromebook-style devices are still not optimistic, and sales of such products are expected to decline by 0.4% by 2016. By 2016, tablet chip sales will see a substantial increase, with a compound annual growth rate of 33.9%.

Trends in PC chips and mobile chips

However, the report also pointed out that the chip sales price of tablet PCs is much lower than the sales price of PC chips. It is expected that the sales of chips from two tablets will be equal to the sales of chips from a desktop or laptop.

This forecast by IC Insights indicates that the sales pattern of hardware products is changing. AMD recently announced that it will pay GlobalFoundries $320 million due to a reduction in chip orders, while conducting business adjustments to cope with declining PC sales.

At the same time, another market research firm, IHS iSuppli, released a report earlier this week highlighting the significant growth in sales of mobile chip Qualcomm's products. Qualcomm's revenue in 2012 increased by 27%. The third place in the global chip market.