PC MPU sales soar in Q3 buoyed by notebook growth

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 10/25/2007

Evidencing the recent strength of PC sales and making good on analysts' claims that the second half of 2007  would bring more growth to the chip market, market research firm IDC has reported that worldwide PC microprocessor shipments grew 14.3 percent sequentially to reach record levels in Q3. Consequently, worldwide PC microprocessor revenue rose 14.8 percent, to $7.95 billion in Q3, the firm said.

Not surprisingly, chips made for increasingly popular laptop PCs led the market's pack. Shipments of processors designed for mobile PCs grew 26.6 percent in Q3, IDC said. Meanwhile, shipments of processors for desktop PCs and for PC servers increased by 7.7 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

The firm chalked up the strong quarter both to the back-to-school rush and overall increased demand. "We attribute the market's performance to Intel's and AMD's aggressive pricing for their new platforms, which stimulated early demand from PC OEMs building PCs for the back-to-school buying season," said Shane Rau, director of IDC's personal computing semiconductors program, in a statement. "However, we also believe that real end demand is there. OEMs are passing processor savings onto consumers, who, instead of buying cheaper systems, are purchasing more robust configurations, partially to support Windows Vista."

Company-by-company, perpetual chipmaking underdog Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) continued to inch up in market share. On an overall unit basis, AMD earned 23.5 percent market share, a gain of 0.4 percent, during Q3, IDC said. Leading chipmaker Intel Corp. earned 76.3 percent, a loss of 0.4 percent.

Looking ahead, IDC said it expects the strong market demand for PC processors to continue in Q4. "Both Intel and AMD noted in their Q3 earnings calls that demand remains strong," Richard Murphy, IDC inquiry analyst, said in a statement. "In fact, both companies noted how the broad-based demand is spread across processor segments and regions of the world."

For Intel's Q3 results, see "Intel cements comeback with record Q3 results."

For AMD's Q3 results, see "Despite solid sales gains, AMD posts another loss for Q3."