Last year, the sales of semiconductors used to make cell phones rose a relatively buoyant 6.2 percent to $44.5 billion.
The next five years may only wish for such riches.
Cell-phone semiconductor revenue will creep up 3.3 percent each year for the next five years, says In-Stat. That’s because the handset growth rate is plummeting.
In-Stat does not provide a specific growth outlook for chip sales this year in a release issued Monday.
But it says the present downturn is more widespread and deeper than the industry has witness before. It adds that this year is the first without any major new feature added to phones. Last year the new feature was mobile TV.
