Global NAND flash memory market revenue fell 7% in 2012 as disappointing Ultrabook sales negated the impact of surging demand from Apple for its iPhone line.
Global revenue generated by mobile operators grew by 5.2% year-on-year to $1.16 trillion in 2012, driven by growth in developing economies that now account for 4 out of every 5 mobile connections worldwide.
With the introduction of its BlackBerry 10, RIM is making the final charge in its struggle to become the third viable smartphone brand alongside market giants Apple and Samsung, as well as the No. 3 operating system vendor after Apple and Google's Android.
After two straight years of contraction, the global DRAM market has the opportunity to rebound to double-digit growth in 2013, but major risks ? including potential continuing weakness in the PC market ? easily could undermine hopes for a sales increase this year.
A new generation of lower-cost and more appealing ultrabooks are expected to help cause global shipments of solid-state drives (SSDs) to more than double in 2013.
The worldwide mobile phone market grew 1.9 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12), as strong holiday smartphone sales raised shipments of these devices to levels nearly equal to those of feature phones.
Samsung Electronics and Apple both dominated semiconductor demand in 2012, although Samsung overtook Apple as the top worldwide semiconductor customer.
Intel?s introduction of a new Atom processor platform designed to target the fast-growing market for low-end smartphones in emerging economies represents a shrewd strategy that could allow the company to expand its currently minimal market share in the industry.
The financial demands of storing and managing big data will lead 30% of businesses to directly or indirectly monetize their information assets by trading, bartering or outright selling them by 2016.