Global shipments of application processors for smart devices are expected to grow 43% on year to 1.32 billion units in 2013, powered by robust sales of Apple and Samsung Electronics branded products, according to Digitimes Research.
The growing market in China has also helped boost global AP shipments in 2013 since the AP market in China is expected to expand by at annual rate of over 60% to account for over 30% of global sales in the year.
However, growth of global AP shipments will slow to 23% in 2014 due to the saturating market in China, where AP shipments are likely to expand at a pace slower than the industry's average, to reach only 17% in the coming year as sales of domestic-branded tablets will be affected by international brands, and the growth of overseas shipments of smart devices will not be able to offset the impact of scaling back domestic sales.
In 2014, sales of ARM's Cortex-A12-based application processors for smartphones are expected to grow significantly, while the sales ratio of 64-bit processors is likely to rise over 20% thanks to strong promotions by Apple and Samsung. With the exception of Samsung, Apple and Qualcomm, other AP vendors are unlikely to step into the 64-bit segment until 2015, Digitimes Research commented.
This article is an excerpt from a Digitimes Research Special Report (2014 global mobile application processor market forecast). Visit our latest Special reports.