Processor shipments increased nearly 13%

By Jim Carbone -- Purchasing, 1/23/2008 11:14:00 AM

Global personal computer microprocessor shipments grew 12.6% in 2007, but revenue increased only 1.7% because of price erosion in the first half of last year. According to a report from researcher IDC, PC processor revenue grew only to $30.55 billion due in part to the price war between Intel and AMD. However, microprocessor pricing began stabilizing in the second half. In the fourth quarter, processor revenue grew nearly 10% to $8.7 billion from the third quarter while processor unit shipments grew 8.5%.

"Overall market pricing was very stable in the quarter," says Shane Rau, director of semiconductors, personal computing research at IDC. "Since server and mobile processors carry a premium over desktop processors and they grew more than desktop processors, they buoyed the market average price,” she says.

Shipments of processors for PC servers had the most growth in the fourth quarter as unit shipments increased 17% from the third quarter. Shipments of processors for mobile PCs grew 10.3%, while processors for desktop PCs grew 6.5%. IDC analysis also reveals that, within each form factor, the percentage of high-end and mainstream processors grew at the expense of low-end processors. For example, in the desktop processor segment, high-end and mainstream processors represented 87.1% of processors shipped in the fourth quarter, up from 84.6% in the third quarter. The fact that the high-end and mainstream segments within all form factor segments grew faster than the value segments kept pricing even firmer.