Two billion mobile processors to ship in 2016

Market research firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has predicted that there will be a whopping 2 billion mobile processors shipping worldwide come 2016.

Of those, 750 million will power smartphones and 869 million will ship in other handsets, such as feature phones.

The rest is made up of 300 million tablets, 100 million E-book readers and 91 million handheld games consoles.

In terms of what these processors are doing, JPR reckons that: "All will be connected all the time, and most will have 3D displays and cameras."

It also believes that more than 16 processor companies will be chasing the market in 2016, compared to the four or five who currently supply PC chips.

Killer device

In terms of convergence, JPR says that: "All of the devices will share some functionality and capabilities, no single device will kill any of the others...at least immediately."

It's an interestingly vague statement, especially in an age where the 3DS is suffering due to iPhone sales.

And although 2 billion may seem like a lot of chips, the same company points out that 1.5 billion will be shipped by the end of 2011 - so it's not a huge leap.

We're also not sure if feature phones will dominate the world market in 2016 - smartphones have already outsold them in the US, and it's a trend that's likely to continue around the world.