Shane McGlaun10 November 2009, 7:00 AM
CPU shipments grow significantly on the backs of small netbook processors.
Not too long ago I talked about the shipment numbers that were in from IDC for
computers for Q3 2009. IDC has now released the
CPU shipment figures for Q3 and just like computer sales, the shipments of CPUs are up. Overall CPU shipments for the quarter grew an impressive 23% for Q3 2009 compared to Q2 2009.
That number represents about twice the standard growth rate according to IDC. In monetary terms the global CPU market for the quarter was worth $7.95 billion ($US7.4 billion), an increase of 14% compared to Q2 2009. The biggest single category for growth in the CPU industry was netbook processors like the Intel Atom line. The netbook category of processors grew by 35.7% for the quarter.
Desktop CPU shipments grew by 11.4% compared to the previous quarter and x86 server processors grew by 12.2% compared to the previous quarter. The clear leader in the CPU market continues to be Intel with 81.1% of the CPU market overall. AMD is a very distant second place with 11.9% of the market and VIA sits in third place with a scant 0.2% of the CPU market.