14 DAY TRIAL // Microprocessors continued to sell well during the last quarter of 2007 and grew 8.5% sequentially to reach record levels. Market analyst IDC states in a report that the overall market revenue grew 9.6% sequentially to an impressive $8.7 billion.
The bestsellers in the microprocessor category were the server chips that grew 17.0% sequentially over the last quarter of 2007. Mobile PC processors also stood out with a 10,3 percent growth, while processors for desktop PCs grew 6.5%. Moreover, the IDC analysis reports that high-end and mainstream CPUs sold better than the low-cost counterparts, and represented 87.1 percent of the whole processor market.
"Overall market pricing was very stable in the quarter," said 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. The fact that the high-end and mainstream segments within all form factor segments grew faster than the value segments kept pricing even firmer. We attribute this result to the aggressive pricing at which suppliers introduced new products in 2Q07 combined with the demand for more robust PC configurations necessary to support Windows Vista. As the year progressed into 4Q07, the pricing drew in more buyers who wanted these relatively high-end products to support this operating system."
The computer industry gets deeper and deeper into the users' lives. IDC estimates that the number of processors shipped during the whole 2007 grew 12.6% compared to the 2006 sales figures. The industry managed to squeeze a revenue of $30.55 billion, which accounts for a 1.7 percent increase. However, IDC estimates that chips will meet a strong demand during the first quarter of 2008.
"While processor shipments typically decline about 6% to 7% between the fourth quarter and the first quarter, economic concerns in the U.S. and the effects on corporate and consumer systems purchases could mean a stronger sequential decline in 1Q08," added Rau. "However, the weakness in the U.S. dollar effectively means a price discount for overseas markets that are driving PC unit demand, so this could have a mitigating effect."
Mobile processors are estimated to continue their strong growth during the year and will ultimately surpass the desktop CPU sales until 2009.