Microchip makers got some good news from Gartner on Thursday, but it didn t produce hurrahs in all sectors of the semiconductor industry.
Worldwide semiconductor revenue is on pace to reach $336 billion in 2014, a 6.7 percent increase from 2013, and up from the previous quarter s forecast of 5.4 percent growth, the research firm reported.
Smartphones and ultramobile devices, including tablets, are the growth areas, Gartner Research Director Ranjit Atwal noted in a press release. But he added, traditional desk-based PCs and notebook units are continuing to decline 6.7 percent in 2014.
That could be worrisome for companies such as Intel, which sell the bulk of their chips – such as the one illustrated here – for personal computers.
Gartner also warned that the chip market tends to be highly cyclical and that sales of some memory chips could fall off in 2016.
Image courtesy of Intel