Consumer systems are forecast to be the third-largest end-use category for ICs in the Americas, Japan, and Asia-Pacific regions in 2015. In Europe, automotive applications are expected to remain the third largest end-use category for ICs this year.

Collectively, communications, computers, and consumer systems are projected to account for 85.7% of IC sales in the Americas this year compared to 77.9% in Japan and 90.8% in Asia-Pacific. Communications, computer, and automotive applications are forecast to represent 82.3% of IC sales in Europe in 2015.

For more than three decades, computer applications were the largest market for IC sales but that changed in 2013 when the global communications IC market took over the top spot due to steady strong growth in smartphones and weakening demand for personal computers.

Globally, communications systems are forecast to represent 38.1% of the $310.5 billion IC market this year compared to 35.2% for computers, and 12.2% for consumer. IC sales to the automotive market are forecast to represent only about 8% of the total IC sales this year but from 2013-2018, this segment is projected to rise by a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8%, highest among all the end-use applications.