Microprocessors – Intel Leads A $94 Billion Market

Microprocessor Highlights

• A market worth $94.2 billion in year to the end of September 2012
• Intel leads with a 57.1% share ($53.8 billion)
• Today PC chips account for 43.6% ($41.1 billion) of total
• By 2017 PC chips will be just 26.6% ($36.1 billion)
• Embedded chips grow fast motoring the Internet of things and overtaking PCs in the process
• Phone/Tablet chips grow rapidly but return significantly less revenue to their producers

The PC Market Grows 1% To $47 Billion In Q2 2012

PC Tracker Highlights Q2 2012

• PC brand revenues grow 1% to $47b in quarter, 4% to $201b in year to June
• Shipments shrink 3% to 55 million in quarter, but grow 3% (241m) in the year
• In the extended $92b Q2 PC market – component business was level at $23b, contract manufacturing was down 8% ($18 b), software down 11% ($3.6 b), channel down 15% ($2.9 b)
• HP leads (17.6%) in annual revenues, Dell (16.8%) in units for the year
• Lenovo (35%), Apple (22%), Asus (15%) and Samsung (11%) enjoy strong growth in the quarter
• Revenues from LG (-33%), Hitachi (-27%), Toshiba (-17%), Dell (-17%) and HP (-4%) fall

Microsoft previews Surface – plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Microsoft Surface Highlights

• Announces 2 Surface platforms – based on ARM and Intel chips
• Includes a keyboard, making this a ‘convertible’
• Will challenge Apple’s 94% share of the smart tablet market
• Will compete directly with its PC OEMs in client devices for the first time and will need to balance its activities carefully
• Signifies the most important move today away from the horizontal PC market

8. Converged Devices Outsell PCs For The First Time

Defining Tablets – The Three Ringed Circus

I’d like to thank Pim Bilderbeek and Marcel Warmerdam of Metis Files who have contributed to this article.
Market researchers need to define what features make a workstation more than a PC, or a ‘smart’ phone more than a feature phone, if they want to size and forecast their markets. In the case of tablets we there are significant challenges as these products are the conflux of a number of different products, business models and technologies. As in these other areas where comparative features play a part it is possible to define a number of sufficient (rather than necessary) tablet features, but we will need to revisit the issue regularly as the products evolve.