Intel Atom Shipments Slip as PC Processor Market Bottoms Out

Ahead of the release of its report "Worldwide PC Processor 1Q09 Vendor Shares," researcher IDC has released information on PC processor unit shipments in the first calendar quarter of 2009, which showed sequential decline.  

"The market's bottom is in sight," IDC analyst Shane Rau wrote in the statement, commenting that while the market showed slightly more than typical sequential decline, the decline seemed to be slowing.  

IDC reports that worldwide PC processor unit shipments declined negative 10.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009 and negative 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009.
 
Market revenue declined negative 11 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, as compared to 18 percent from the third quarter of 2008 the fourth. From the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, processor market revenue declined 25.1 percent.
 
"The PC processor market continued to reflect significant decline in end demand for most of [first quarter 2009]," Rau wrote in the statement.
 
"However, some inventory replenishment by OEMs at the end of the quarter helped to slow the decline and bring the quarter in at a level only slightly worse than typical seasonal decline."
 
Intel led worldwide overall PC microprocessor unit market share for the first quarter of 2009, at 77.3 percent (versus 78.9 percent for the first quarter of 2008). Advanced Micro Devices followed with 22.3 percent (up from 20.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008) and then VIA Technologies, with 0.4 percent, up from 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
 
Broken down by form factor, in the first quarter of 2009 Intel earned 84.3 percent share in the mobile PC processor segment - which includes processors for mini-notebooks, or netbooks, such as Intel's Atom processor - which represented a fall of 4.8 percent from the previous quarter.
 
AMD earned 15.0 percent, a gain of 4.8 percent from the previous quarter, and VIA Technologies maintained its 0.7 percent share of the previous quarter.
 
In the worldwide desktop PC microprocessor unit space, Intel earned 70 percent market share for the first quarter of 2009 (down 3.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008); AMD earned 29.8 percent (up 3.8 percent from the previous quarter); and VIA technologies doubled its modest position, with 0.2 percent market share, versus is 0.1 percent share the previous quarter.
 
And lastly, worldwide PC server microprocessor unit market share was split between Intel, with 89.3 percent of the share and AMD with 10.7 percent. Intel gained a 1.2 percent share from the previous quarter, while AMD was down the 1.2 percent.
 
IDC's outlook is that the PC processor market is still weak, and that while OEM demand increased going into April, it may have been due to OEMs replenishing their inventories, and not a demand from the market.

"IDC continues to expect modest sequential processor unit shipment decline in [the second quarter of 2009]," wrote analyst Rau in the statement.