CPU shipments jump up 7.4 percent in Q1 2011

IDC reports processor shipments were up 7.4 percent year-over-year in Q1 2011 and provides details about AMD's and Intel's marketshare.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in the first calendar quarter of 2011 (1Q11) grew, compared to both 4Q10 (+1.6% quarter over quarter) and to 1Q10 (+7.4% year over year), according to the latest PC microprocessor market share study from International Data Corporation (IDC). Also, according to IDC's latest PC microprocessor market forecast, unit shipments for the full year 2011 will grow 10.3% compared to 2010 and market revenue for the year will grow 17.6% to nearly $43 billion.

"The first quarter, which is usually weak, was strong in terms of unit shipments, but surely benefited from an extra calendar week," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. "Both Intel and AMD grew unit shipments sequentially, which indicates some decent strength in their new platforms. Due to the first full quarter shipping their Sandy Bridge and Fusion microprocessors with integrated graphics processors (IGP), processors with IGP grew to slightly over 50% of market shipments for the first time."

1Q11 Vendor Highlights
In 1Q11, PC processor vendor shares overall were remarkably stable. Intel earned 80.8% unit market share and AMD earned 18.9%, both flat compared to 4Q10. VIA Technologies earned 0.2%.

In 1Q11 by form factor, Intel earned 86.3% share in the mobile PC processor segment, a gain of 0.2%, AMD finished with 13.4%, a loss of 0.1%, and VIA earned 0.3%. In the PC server/workstation processor segment, Intel finished with 93.9% market share, a loss of 0.3%, and AMD earned 6.1%, a gain of 0.3%. In the desktop PC processor segment, Intel earned 72.4%, a loss of 0.1%, and AMD earned 27.4%, a gain of 0.1%.

2011 and Long-Term Market Outlook
In a separate study, IDC's slightly raised its forecast for year-over-year growth in PC (mobile, desktop, x86 server) microprocessor unit shipments in 2011 from 10.1% to 10.3%. "Generally, the demand environment for the second half of this year looks decent. The earthquake and tsunami had minor effects on the PC supply chain," added Rau. "However, the real near-to-mid term concern there is the effect on Japanese demand for PCs and so microprocessors."

For the first time, IDC is forecasting PC microprocessor units by processor architecture, including those based on x86 and those based on ARM. By 2015, IDC expects that over 13% of PC processors will be based on the ARM architecture.