14 DAY TRIAL // Computers may be losing customers bit by bit, but smartphones, tablets and, more recently, wearable gadgets have been making up for it, to the point where it's believed that microprocessor sales will go up in 2014.
Not by much, mind you, but still by a nice 9% compared to 2013, according to analysts.
So we'll end the year with sales of $66.7 billion / €45 billion instead of $61 billion / €44.8 billion.
And since sales also grew by 8% in 2013, that means that MPU shipments have been going steadily up every year. Not surprising, but still good to know that our expectations have been met. At least optimism doesn't have to completely die yet.
Tablet application processor sales will grow the most, by 35%, while handset chips will go up 19% this year.
Meanwhile, MPUs used in standard PCs, servers, large computers and embedded applications will drop 2% in sales.