40 The PCB Magazine • April 2015
Gartner: Smartphone Sales Tops
One Billion Units in 2014
Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users
had a record fourth quarter of 2014 with an in-
crease of 29.9% from fourth quarter of 2013 to
reach 367.5 million units, according to Gartner,
Inc. Samsung lost the No. 1 spot to Apple in the
global smartphone market in the fourth quarter
of 2014.
Wearable Tech Market to Reach
$70B by 2025
There will be over 3 billion sensors in wearable
technology devices by 2025, with more than
30% being emerging sensor types. Wearable
Sensors 2015–2025: Market Forecasts, Tech-
nologies, Players is a brand new IDTechEx report
which provides the only up-to-date and specially
tailored analysis of every prominent sensor type
for wearable technology.
China Eyes Bigger Share in Mobile
Phone Display Market
According to a new report from IHS, the leading
global source for critical information and insight,
Chinese display module makers have resolved to
increase their share of global mobile-phone dis-
play shipments. In Q3 of 2014, BOE unseated
Samsung Display to become the leading global
mobile phone display module supplier.
WLAN Market Witnessed Sluggish
Growth in Q4 2014
According to the results published in the Inter-
national Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide
Quarterly WLAN Tracker, the enterprise segment
continued to grow at a steady rate and increased
another 7.4% over the same period last year. Af-
ter an uptick in year-over-year growth in 3Q14
(9.4%), the enterprise WLAN market growth rate
resumed a pattern of incremental growth rate de-
creases.
Passive Optical Components Market
to Hit $38B by 2019
The report states that the worldwide market for
passive optical components stood at US$10.01
billion in 2013. Registering a CAGR of 21.1% from
2014–2020, the passive optical components mar-
ket is projected to reach a total worth of US$38.19
billion by the end of 2020.
Transition to Welding Robotics
is Inevitable
Modernisation needs in the competitive global
market and the rising emphasis on energy effi-
ciency are steering industries towards automation.
This trend is driving the uptake of welding robots
over manual welding methods.
$1.36T Market Potential of Increased
Digitization
The increased use of digital technologies could
boost productivity for the world's top 10 econo-
mies and add US$1.36 trillion to their total eco-
nomic output in 2020, according to a new study
by Accenture. The study is based on the Accenture
Digital Density Index, a tool that helps companies
make better strategic investments based on gran-
ular measures of digital performance.
PMI Experienced Loss in 2014 but
Expects Better 2015
Probe Manufacturing Inc. (PMI), a Product De-
velopment Accelerator providing engineering
and manufacturing services to innovative tech-
nology companies reports sales of approximately
$3,550,000 and gross profit margin of $920,000
for the year ended December 31, 2014.
Small Business Slows in February
U.S. small businesses added 15,000 new jobs in
February, making for more than 910,000 jobs
added since March 2010, but revenues per small
business decreased by 0.2% in January, which
translates to a decline of 1.8% when annualized,
according to Intuit.
U.S. Economic Growth Seen to Continue
UCLA Anderson Forecast's first quarterly report for
the U.S. economy says that the nation "looks like
an island of stability in a very volatile world." The
implication is that the U.S. is still on track for 3%
GDP growth for the next two years, despite slow
growth and currency devaluations throughout
much of the rest of the developed world.
40 The PCB Magazine • April 2015
Electronics Industry News
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