Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues increased year-over-year by 2.4 percent, totaling $6.9 billion, during the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13).
According to research firm IDC, the total tablet market, inclusive of both tablets and 2-in-1 devices, is forecast to grow 19.4 percent in 2014, down from a growth rate of 51.6 percent in 2013.
Global shipments of cellphones equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology will surge by more than a factor of four from 2013 to 2018, reaching 1.2 billion units
This was the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue decline, as server market demand remained weak ahead of a forthcoming refresh cycle, which is expected to emerge in early 2014.
The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 11.5 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13).
Many smartphone vendors have begun gearing up for the next wave of cost pressure. Samsung is increasingly switching production to Vietnam, where manufacturing costs currently undercut mainland China.
The global memory market presented a vivid picture of contrast last year given the wildly divergent fortunes of its two main segments, with spritely NAND offset by the sobering continued downturn of beleaguered NOR flash.
An increasing move on the part of enterprise businesses to move their information technology services, applications, and infrastructure to a cloud-based architecture will cause market revenue in this segment to surge by a factor of three from 2011 to 2017.
