Q4 Graphics Shipments Decreased 10.4% Over Last Quarter, and Increased 8.9% Over Last Year According to Latest Report from Jon Peddie Research

Q4 Graphics Shipments Decreased 10.4% Over Last Quarter, and Increased 8.9% Over Last Year According to Latest Report from Jon Peddie Research | Bild: © blackred

We found that shipments during the fourth quarter of 2011 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality, the new seasonality that has developed since the economic crash of 2008. Prior to that shift, Q4 was a seasonally up quarter, since 2008 it?s been a seasonally low to down quarter?and this year it was down the most since 2008 (see figure 1). A lot of it was blamed on the floods in Thailand, but general economic malaise still permeates the industry.

Our forecast for the coming years has been modified since the last report, and is less aggressive on both desktops and notebooks?tablets have changed the nature of the PC market. Our findings include Desktops, Notebooks (and Netbooks), and PC-based commercial (i.e., POS) and industrial/scientific and embedded; and do not include handhelds (i.e., mobile phones), x86 Servers or ARM-based Tablets (i.e. iPad and Android-based Tablets), Smartbooks, or ARM-based Servers.

The quarter in general

Graphics chips (GPUs) and chips with graphics (IGPs, HPUs, and EPGs) are a leading indicator for the PC market. At least one and often two GPUs are present in every PC shipped. It can take the form of a discrete chip, a GPU integrated in the chipset or embedded in the CPU. The average has grown from 115% in 2001 to almost 150% GPUs per PC.

Since the crash of 2008, combined with the introduction and influence of ARM-based tablets, the PC market has deviated from historical trends. Until the segment for tablets is clearly defined the fluctuations in the market data is likely to continue. The disruptions probably won?t settle down for a while as tablets find their place in the market and agreement can be reached on whether to include them in the PC market analysis, or to not.

Market shares shifted for the big three, and put pressure on the smaller three, and most showed a decrease in market share as indicated in Table 1.

AMD?s overall graphics market share increased 1,8% from last quarter due mostly to HPU shipments.

Intel continues to be the overall market share leader, elevated by Core i5 EPG CPUs, Sandy Bridge, and Pineview Atom sales for Netbooks. AMD gained market share quarter-to quarter Intel and Nvidia lost share.

Nvidia is exiting the integrated graphics segments and shifting focus to discrete GPUs. The company showed good desktop discrete market share gain (3.7% qtr-qtr), and 0.1% in notebooks. Nvidia credits strong connect with new Intel Sandybridge notebooks. Ironically Nvidia enjoyed some serendipitous sales of IGPs in Q4 due to some older AMD CPU sales in Asia.

Market share this quarter

Table 1: Total Graphics Chip Market shares (Jon Peddie Research)

Year to year for the quarter the market increased. Shipments increased to 124 million units, up 10.6 million units from this quarter last year.

Pricing and Availability

The Q4?11 edition of Jon Peddie Research's Market Watch is available now in both electronic and hard copy editions, and can be purchased for $1,995. Included with this report is an Excel workbook with the data used to create the charts, the charts themselves, and supplemental information. The annual subscription price for JPR's Market Watch is $3,500 and includes four quarterly issues. Full subscribers to JPR services receive Tech Watch (the company's bi-weekly report) and a copy of Market Watch as part of their subscription. For information about purchasing Market Watch, please call 415/435-9368 or visit the Jon Peddie Research website at www.jonpeddie.com.

Contact Robert Dow at JPR (Robert@jonpeddie.com) for a free sample of TechWatch.

About Jon Peddie Research

Dr. Jon Peddie has been active in the graphics and multimedia fields for more than 30 years. Jon Peddie Research is a technically oriented multimedia and graphics research and consulting firm. Based in Tiburon, California, JPR provides consulting, research, and other specialized services to technology companies in a variety of fields including graphics development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product development. Jon Peddie's Market Watch is a quarterly report focused on the market activity of PC graphics controllers for notebook and desktop computing.

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