Global PC Processor Q1 2010 Shipments Jump 39 Percent

Global shipments of PC microprocessors spiked some 39 percent in the first quarter of 2010 when compared with the same period last year, according to researcher International Data Corp.

On a sequential quarterly basis, unit shipments of PC microprocessors worldwide slipped 5.6 percent in Q1 2010 compared with results for Q4 2009, IDC said.

While a seasonal decline from a calendar year’s fourth quarter to the next calendar year’s first quarter fits a historical pattern, this downturn was less than expected, the researcher said.

Worldwide total market revenue for Q1 2010 rose some 40.4 percent in comparison with the same quarter last year but fell 2 percent from Q4 2009, IDC said.

“PC processor shipments typically decline around 7 to 8 percent going from fourth quarter to first quarter,” said Shane Rau, director of IDC’s PC semiconductor research.

Rau said that the moderate sequential decline from the fourth quarter 2009 pointed to an improvement market performance for the remainder of 2010. While the researcher is forecasting a 15.1 percent unit growth for 2010, it said that low inventories, strong outlooks from vendors, and expected positive corporate IT spending could drive that figure higher.

“A decline of 5.6 percent is modest and wouldn’t mean much by itself,” he said. “However, after the huge rise in shipments we saw in the fourth quarter, it adds more credibility to market recovery and that the PC industry anticipates improvements in PC end demand in 2010.”

Among hardware platforms, PC server processor shipments declined a scant 1.4 percent quarter-over-quarter, while desktop PC processor shipments shrank 5.1 percent and mobile PC processors 6.3 percent when similarly measured.

For the quarter, Intel Corp. retained its market share leadership at 81 percent of total unit shipments, a gain of .5 percent, followed by AMD at 18.8 percent, a loss of .6 percent and VIA Technologies at .2 percent.