In some pretty unsurprising news, it looks like next year Mobile components will have surpassed PC components in the sheer volume of sales. IC Insights published a report that clearly identifies Mobile hardware components as the highest projected sales figure. The report projects that $65.1 billion will be spent on PC components while $70.1 billion will be spent on mobile components.

Now before we get on to the rest of this feature, I’d like to clarify that by no means do these projected figures suggest the PC market is going anywhere. No matter what gadgets come into fruition, there will always be a need for standard computers and desktops in gaming, graphic design, video editing and more. Some markets will always require the added hardware and power that only a desktop computer can offer.

That being said, tablets are rapidly replacing computers as they can reasonably do anything that a standard computer can. It’s somewhat surprising that we’re just now realizing, less hardware packed into a much smaller size is more desirable than absolute power. It was only years ago that everyone was concerned with how powerful their computer is, and how much power they could cram into a tower.

Now, everyone is still concerned with power in their tablets and smartphones, albeit with a markedly different perspective. Sure, we shun devices that don’t include the standard 1GB capacity of installed RAM these days, but we’ve adjusted our attention as consumers. It seems like only yesterday that we were concerned with packing tons of RAM and performance into a larger sized laptop.

My general point is that it’s surprising that we’re now less concerned with absolute power, and we’ve sacrificed some of it for convenience. This is not necessarily a terrible thing because tablets and smartphones are like portable supercomputers. It’s just fascinating to look at the progression of technology in this way.

We’ve essentially downgraded, mind you, we are slowly catching up in terms of power as smartphones and tablets become progressively more powerful.

On another note, IC lumps the entire PC market into five categories: touch-screen tablets, desktop computers, notebook PCs, “convertible” tablet/notebook systems, and internet-centric portables. The total revenue generated from computer sales is projected to reach $348 billion in 2016, up from $268 billion in 2011.

Regardless of what market is seeing more sales figures, those are exceptionally promising numbers. So, despite what you take away from this particular report, you should know that computers in general are here to stay, and they are indeed being used more every day. Wow, I sounded a little bit like Dr. Suess there.