The market for integrated circuits (ICs) has grown from $1.41 trillion in 2013, according to IC Insights' new 2015 edition of "IC Market Drivers - A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits." The 480-page report shows that mobile phones are widening their lead over personal computers (desktops and laptops) as the largest market for integrated circuits in 2014, after surpassing PCs for the first time in 2013. The report also shows that the mobile phone market extends its lead as the largest end-use application for ICs in 2014, accounting for 25% of total IC sales, compared to 21% for standard PCs.
Figure 1 compares the relative market sizes and projected growth rates of the top 10 systems segments among a couple dozen, in order to use the electronic product categories covered in the CIs market study in 2015. Sales of systems associated with the emerging Internet of Things are expected to increase the fastest rate in the forecast period, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 21.1%.
In 2014, mobile terminals are expected to account for 18% of global electronics systems sales ($265.2 billion), compared to 13% ($196 billion) for standard PCs. In 2013, PCs represented 15% of global systems sales, while mobile phones accounted for slightly less than 18%, according to market analysis in the new report. Tablet sales are expected to account for 6% of systems revenue in 2014, up from 5% in 2013, while the dollar volume for Internet of Things (IoT) features (embedded in end-use applications) is projected to represent 3% of the total electronics market, a slight increase from 2013.
After dominating integrated circuit sales for most of the past two decades, standard PCs were overtaken by mobile phones as the largest end-use sector for ICs in 2013. The new 2015 IC market report shows estimated sales of mobile phone ICs growing 11% in 2014 to $70.7 billion, up from $63.5 billion in 2013. Sales of mobile ICs are forecast to increase another 11% to $78.4 billion in 2015. Sales of standard PC ICs are expected to recover from a two-year slump (-11% in 2012 and -10% in 2013) to grow 4% in 2014, reaching $59.1 billion, according to the new report. PC IC sales are projected to grow by 2% in 2015 to $60.6 billion.
Figure 2 shows the market sizes and projected growth for IC sales in 11 major end-use system categories, based on the five-year forecasts in the 2015 ICs report.
Among these 11 end-use market segments, IC sales growth is expected to be strongest in Internet of Things subsystems (CAGR of 22.3%), wireless networking (19.7%), and tablet PCs (17.4%) over the five forecast periods in the report. Revenue generated by these 11 IC end-use categories accounted for 76% of total worldwide IC sales in 2014 and is expected to account for 85% in 2018.
