Sales figure compilation for 2013 ranks processor vendors
Qualcomm is ranked number two and its rise reflects the marketshare gains for makers of processors for mobile phone and tablet computers who, in aggregate, increased market share to 31% in 2013 from 26% in 2012.
In 2013 the MPU market was worth $58.6 billion, about 22% of total IC sales, IC Insights reckons.
Within the MPU category tablet application processors were about 6%, up from 4% the previous year, while cellphone processors accounted for 25% of the revenue, up from 22% in 2012. This leaves MPUs used in personal and server computers and embedded processing dropping to 69% of the total, from 74% in 2012.
Leading MPU suppliers ranked by 2013 sales ($M). Source: IC Insights.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, makers of x86 processors, have been suffering from this trend. While Intel has been trying to break into the ARM domain of mobile equipment – with little success – Advanced Micro Devices has been persuaded to license the ARM 64b-bit architecture for use in server processors.
AMD has been hit harder by the decline in PC shipments and x86 processor sales with its total MPU revenues plunging 21% annually in both 2012 and 2013, according to IC Insights. AMD’s 2013 microprocessor sales (excluding stand-alone graphics processors) fell to $2.8 billion, which represented 4.8% of total MPU sales last year compared to its previous marketshares of 6.4% in 2012 and 8.2% in 2011.
While AMD is adopting the ARM architecture Intel is attempting to rejig the x86 architecture for mobile applications from smartphones and tablets down to wearable and Internet of Things applications.
Intel is preparing to introduce 14nm FinFET processors called Broadwell in the second half of 2014 and aims to ship 40 million tablet MPUs in 2014 – up by a factor of four from 2013 – although it is paying a subsidy to manufacturers to adopt the x86 architecture. Intel’s CEO said the company shipped 5 million in the first quarter of 2014 and was "on-course" to hit the 40 million target in 2014.
IC Insights; www.icinsights.com
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