Worldwide PC MPU revenues in Q3 2011 rise over 12 percent compared to Q2 2011

SAN MATEO, USA: Worldwide PC microprocessor revenues in the third calendar quarter of 2011 (3Q11) rose to $10.7 billion, up 12.2 percent compared to 2Q11 and up 16.1 percent compared to 3Q10, according to the latest PC microprocessor market share study from International Data Corp. (IDC). On a unit basis, the PC microprocessor market rose 6.7 percent compared to 2Q11 and rose 5.2 percent compared to 3Q10.

"The average selling price (ASP) that OEMs pay for PC microprocessors rose more than 5 percent in 3Q11," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC, "and it was the eighth quarter in a row that ASPs rose. Clearly, Intel's Sandy Bridge and AMD's Fusion microprocessors with integrated graphic processors are rising in each company's product stack and driving the price increase. At the same time, low-end processors, notably Intel's Atom processors, are declining as a percentage of the unit mix."

Intel's Sandy Bridge and AMD's Fusion microprocessors contain integrated graphics processors (IGP). IDC's tracking of these processors indicates that processors with IGP rose to 73 percent of total PC processor unit volume in 3Q11.

3Q11 vendor highlights
In 3Q11, Intel earned 80.2 percent overall worldwide unit market share, a gain of 0.9 percent compared to 2Q11. In 3Q11, AMD earned 19.7 percent, a loss of 0.7 percent compared to 2Q11. VIA Technologies earned 0.1 percent, a loss of 0.2 percent.

In 3Q11 by form factor, Intel earned 82.3 percent share in the mobile PC processor segment, a loss of 2.1 percent, AMD finished with 17.6 percent, a gain of 2.4 percent, and VIA earned 0.1 percent. In the PC server/workstation processor segment, Intel finished with 95.1 percent market share, a gain of 0.6 percent, and AMD earned 4.9 percent, a loss of 0.6 percent. In the desktop PC processor segment, Intel earned 75.8 percent, a gain of 4.8 percent, and AMD earned 24.1 percent, a loss of 4.8 percent.

2011 and long-term market outlook
Since June, client PC processor demand growth has slowed down modestly. Combined with a weak macroeconomic outlook—due to sovereign debt issues in Europe and poor job growth in the United States—IDC is reducing its client PC processor (desktop, mobile, x86 server) unit growth forecast for 2011 from 9.3 percent to 7.3 percent.