Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market share for Q1'11. We found that shipments during the first quarter of 2011 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality, and was nominal on a year-to-year comparison for the quarter. The situation changed over the course of the year and Q4'10 did not conform to the normal seasonal cycle, but was down a bit compared to previous years, so the growth in Q1 was a welcomed change. Our forecast for the coming years has been modified since the last report, and is less aggressive on both desktops and notebooks.

HP today announced a new lineup of powerful mobile workstations, ideal for engineering, power-computing and content-creation customers who need the performance of a workstation with the portability and convenience of a notebook. HP also unveiled the HP Z210 Workstation, demonstrating its continued investment in the desktop and mobile workstations market, where it holds leading market share.

Building on HP's "FORGE"#8221; design framework, the HP EliteBook w-series embodies a timeless construction, with precision-engineered durability features that are designed for maximum reliability and with the environment in mind. The new products showcase HP's first-ever industrial design specific to mobile workstations, with distinctive features including a radial-brushed gunmetal finish, backlit jewel logo and orange-colored accents.

The year 2010 was an extremely difficult year for Foxconn. We saw major changes in the handset ecosystem triggered by entry of new players, introduction of new software and applications, as well as emergence of new business models. Market dynamics shifted drastically and created tough challenges for some industry players as well as the Company.

Despite our continual efforts to further diversify customer base and sources of revenue, the operation results for the Company concluded less than satisfaction. Revenue for the year 2010 was US$6,626 million, which represents a change of US$588 million, or 8.2% less than the prior year revenue of US$7,214 million.

Market research firm Jon Peddie Research gave out PC graphics shipments figures for Q4 2010. PC and related products sales overall were lower than usual in 2010 as the industry saw propagation of ULPCs, netbooks, and tablets propagate, hence PC graphics sales, too, were lower by as much as 7.8% down compared to the same period in 2009. Sales of GPUs and processor-embedded GPUs in Q4 stood at 113 million units, 432.2 million in all of 2010. Intel continues to be the dominant player, though its market share was lowered by competitors AMD and NVIDIA. Intel's market share was lowered in 2010, to 52.5%, from 55.2% in Q3 2010. AMD/ATI is at the second spot with a market share of 24.2% (up, from 23% in Q3); and NVIDIA at the third spot at 22.5% (21% in Q3). Other smaller GPU vendors, VIA and Matrox, stood at 0.8%, and 0.1%, respectively.

Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced two new 2.5-inch HDD models designed for rugged 24-hour continuous operation in computing, industrial, and other extreme environments. The new models - the 100GB1 SATA interface MK1060GSCX and the 80GB1 PATA interface MK8050GACY - offer exceptional reliability and performance across wide temperature, altitude, and vibration ranges, making them excellent choices for use in industrial equipment such as ATMs, digital surveillance, factory automation, and ruggedized PCs.

Designed for extended periods of operation, the MK1060GSCX and MK8050GACY feature a "case temperature" range of -15 to +70 degrees Celsius2 - the widest temperature range for 24/7* power-on operation in the HDD market. Both drives also have an expanded operating altitude range and offer better resistance to vibration when compared to standard HDD models.

AMD today introduced the next generation of PC gaming, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series, designed to be "perfect graphics cards" for gamers by delivering unprecedented game performance starting at $179 SEP. The new AMD Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards provide more than 30 percent greater game performance than competing products, harnessing AMD's second-generation Microsoft DirectX 11-capable architecture, best-in-class energy efficiency, and an unmatched feature set, including AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology. The AMD Radeon HD 6800 series is available immediately from etailers worldwide.

"AMD is the market share leader by a landslide in DirectX 11 graphics," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. "Through our sweet spot strategy and our open, industry standards approach, we've worked to deliver the best possible experience for gamers. Today, our laser focus on gamers continues with the introduction of what we think is far and away the best graphics card series today, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series. With exceptional game performance, an unrivaled feature set including breathtaking DirectX 11 gaming, AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing, and more, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series will have all gamers wanting to get Radeon in their systems."

DisplayLink Corp., the market share leader with more than three million USB graphics users worldwide, today provided a glimpse at its new SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) chip platform for next generation displays, docking stations and other integrated devices to be showcased next week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, California, in booth #948.

The new DisplayLink single-chip family, DL-3000 and DL-1000 series, includes integrated display and networking connectivity, high performance audio and HD video support, as well as third generation DisplayLink adaptive real-time compression technology that dynamically manages bandwidth, taking full advantage bi-directional throughput of SuperSpeed USB. This means multiple full HD videos, high resolution graphics and networking data can be processed simultaneously, while also substantially increasing today's HighSpeed USB (USB 2.0) graphics performance and enabling graphics delivery over gigabit Ethernet.

Worldwide PC microprocessor unit shipments and revenues in the second calendar quarter of 2010 (2Q10) increased 3.6% and 6.2%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2010, according to the latest PC processor study from International Data Corporation (IDC).

The average sequential change in unit shipments between a calendar year's first quarter and its second quarter is an increase of 1.6%. For revenues, the average sequential change is a decrease of -2.8%. So, these increases represent better performance than usual for a second calendar quarter.

"Such a sequential increase in PC processor shipments alone would have been enough to conclude that the first half was strong for the market," said Shane Rau director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. "However, a modest rise in revenues, too, points directly to a rise in average selling prices. System makers bought more and higher-priced PC processors in 2Q10 than in 1Q10. Digging a little deeper into the numbers shows that they bought more mobile processors and more server processors, while desktop processors remained flat."

NVIDIA reported revenue of $811.2 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 ended Aug. 1, 2010, down 19.0 percent from the prior quarter and up 4.5 percent from $776.5 million from the same period a year earlier.

On a GAAP basis, the company recorded a net loss of $141.0 million, or $0.25 per share, compared with net income of $137.6 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, in the previous quarter and a net loss of $105.3 million, or $0.19 per share, in the same period a year earlier. GAAP gross margin was 16.6 percent compared with 45.6 percent in the previous quarter and 20.2 percent in the same period a year earlier.

The Intel juggernaut rolls on in Q1 2010, according the latest IDC report covering PC processor sales. Similar to the GPU market, processor sales grew by 39% compared to this time last year (Q1 2009), but declined by 5.6% compared to Q4 2009. Revenues went up 40.4% year-on-year and down just 2% sequentially. Intel's market share grew by 0.5%, slightly at the expense of AMD, which went down 0.6%.

Intel holds 81% of the processor market, while 'rival' AMD holds 18.8%. VIA holds a tiny 0.2% of the market. In the x86 server market, Intel holds 90.2%, with AMD and others at 9.8%. With the notebook and desktop segments it reached 87.8% and 71.7%, respectively. For 2010 IDC is predicting a CPU unit growth of 15.1%. Q1 2010 saw Intel propagating processors based on its new architecture to the crucial value and mainstream market segments, with the Core i3, Core i5, and Pentium dual-core processors in the LGA-1156 package.

The latest edition of Jon Peddie Research covering the PC graphics industry indicates that shipments of GPUs in Q1 2010 increased 44.3% over Q1 2009. There are increases in market shares of both AMD and NVIDIA, year over year, this time at the expense of Intel. The highlight for this quarter, however, has been the significant increase in market share of AMD. The company behind ATI Radeon clocked a 96.3% growth year-over-year. Despite taking a cut, Intel continues to to have the highest market share. With the introduction of Intel's Clarkdale and Arrandale processors that have embedded graphics processors, JPR demarcated these into a new entry called integrated processor graphics (IPG), from chipset graphics. With the propagation of the platform, it is predicted that chipset graphics will diminish in market share.

The European Commission has today published a non-confidential version of its Intel Decision, adopted on 13 May 2009 ( IP/09/745 and MEMO/09/235 ), together with a summary of the key elements of the Decision. That Decision found that Intel broke EC Treaty antitrust rules (Article 82) by engaging in two types of illegal practice to exclude competitors from the market for computer chips called x86 central processing units (CPUs). These practices harmed consumers throughout the EEA. By undermining its competitors' ability to compete on the merits of their products, Intel's actions undermined competition, reduced consumer choice and hindered innovation. On the basis of a significant amount of contemporaneous evidence and company statements, the Decision demonstrates how Intel broke the law.

Intel abused its dominant position in the x86 CPU market by implementing a series of conditional rebates to computer manufacturers and to a European retailer and by taking other measures aimed at preventing or delaying the launch of computers based on competing products (so-called 'naked restrictions'). The Commission's Decision outlines specific cases of these conditional rebates and naked restrictions, as well as how Intel sought to conceal its practices and how computer manufacturers and Intel itself recognised the growing threat represented by the products of Intel's main competitor, AMD.

Cut-throat competition between major graphics processor vendors had to happen in the worst of times as far as the economic weather goes. The latest papers by Jon Peddie Research (JPR) covering the state of graphics add-in board market reveals that Q2 2009 has been a better quarter than Q1, but still worse compared to last year. This quarter, around 16.81 million units were shipped, which is a welcome 3 percent increase over the previous quarter (16.32 units), while compared to Q2 2008, shipments are down 15 percent. In contrast, the integrated graphics (IGP) market saw a 4 percent increase compared to last year.

One of the factors that could have contributed to the slump, according to JPR, is the replenishment of inventories in Q2, which overshadowed its digestion (sales). As for gainers and losers, AMD gained a handy 4 percent of market-share, while NVIDIA lost just that amount. AMD stands at 35 percent, with NVIDIA at 64 percent, against last quarter's 31 and 68 percent respectively. JPR however notes that "despite its renewed competitiveness, however, AMD hadn't yet seen a sustained growth in market share, as NVIDIA adamantly refused to give up any volume, aggressively cutting prices as necessary to avoid a loss in share," so in essence, NVIDIA's move to introduce drastic price cuts for some mid-thru-high end products seems to have worked in its favour. Hopefully H2 2009 looks better under JPR's watchglass, as new product launches are definitely indicated, and of course, there's the holiday shopping season incoming.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in the first calendar quarter of 2009 (1Q09) fell significantly for the second quarter in a row, according to new data from IDC. While the decline was slightly more than typically occurs between fourth quarter and first quarter, IDC believes that the market's decline is slowing.

In 1Q09, worldwide PC processor unit shipments declined -10.9% from 4Q08 to 1Q09, as compared to -17.0% from 3Q08 to 4Q08. Unit shipments declined -13.0% from 1Q08 to 1Q09.

Market revenue declined -11% from 4Q09 to 1Q09, as compared to -18.0% from 3Q08 to 4Q08. Revenue declined -25.1% from 1Q08 to 1Q09.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, today announced a new study that indicates the end of the market for the popular integrated graphics chipset, known as the IGP.

After fifteen years of stellar growth the IGP will cease to exist, replaced by embedded graphics in the processor. Integrated graphics are used in desktop and net top PCs, notebooks, and netbooks, and various embedded systems such as point of sale, set-top boxes, and signage systems.

With the introduction of the K8 architecture, years ago, AMD found inroads into significantly rising in market-share for CPUs, at the expense of Intel. That growth ceased with Intel's introduction of the competing Core microarchitecture, following which, AMD was pushed into some deep financial trouble. Eventually the company spun-off its manufacturing division to form the Globalfoundries with investment from Advanced Technology Investment Company, recently.

With the introduction of the 45 nm Phenom II series of processors however, sharp growths in demand for AMD have been observed, with Phenom II X3 700 series triple-core, and the Phenom II X4 920 quad-core desktop processors. The surge in demand is caused due to recent price-cuts by the company. Motherboard vendors forecast the overall global market-share for AMD desktop processors to go up by 30 percent in Q2, 2009. With a conservative-estimate of its current market share to be around 20 percent, the growth would send the figure to 26 percent. The company plans to further expand its desktop CPU lineup with the introduction of an entry-level desktop platform before September.

Firefox, Mozilla's most successful web browser based on the Gecko browser engine holds more than 20% of the web-browser market share, according to the latest figures by NetApplications placing it at 21.34%. Web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari have been on a roll in the past 24 months, at the expense of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) which has been falling in market-share from the 90+ percent it once held.

Mozilla's CEO John Lilly calls this as a significant milestone for Mozilla, and gives credit to the global Mozilla community. NetApplications gets into the details of how Firefox gained a market share growth of 20%, by attributing it to the relatively high number of public holidays between November and December, when users accessed internet from home. This since the significant movers were noted to be home/domestic users rather than corporate users.

In the month of November, the market share of Microsoft Windows fell below the 90% mark, to 89.6%. This is a 15 year low in market share for the OS, according to market share data by Net Applications, sourced by TG Daily. The market share fell from its position same time, last year, at 92.4%.

One of the prime movers of this figure is the growth in market share of Apple's Mac OS X at 8.87%, slightly over 2% growth from its market share last year. According to the same data, Linux is still below the 1% mark.

Industry watcher DigiTimes has some good news today. Apparently, disturbed by the rising presence of ATI in the discrete graphics card market, NVIDIA is planning a counter attack with the easiest way possible - cut the prices of its products. If the information is right, NVIDIA is going to slash the prices across its entire high-end GeForce GTX 200 line-up, as well as the mainstream GeForce 9800 GT and GeForce 9600 GT series. Unfortunately, the other piece of information as of when and by how much the prices will go down is unknown.

With AMD making gains in the discrete graphics card market - rising to around 40% in third-quarter 2008 according to a recent report from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) - Nvidia is planning to cut its graphics card prices in an attempt to curb further loss of market share, according to sources at graphics card makers.
AMD anticipates taking 50% of the market after reducing prices for its ATI Radeon HD 4000 series products, but to counter Nvidia has also made moves to cut prices for its GeForce GTX 200, 9800 GT and 9600 GT series.

Whichever way the global economy is headed, 3Q, 2008 hasn't been a bad period for computer hardware industry. The GPU market saw its bumper sale in six years, with both NVIDIA and AMD reaping inflows. Similar trends were also reported with other sections of the industry. The CPU for one, is commodity closely linked to the growth of the industry. 3Q 2008 saw record earnings for Intel as well, as the silicon giant continued its market-share gains into rival AMD, as recorded by market observer iSuppli.

According to iSuppli figures held by Information Week, Intel now holds a massive 80.4% of the CPU market share, which is up 1.7% from Q3 2007. AMD's share on the other hand fell 1.8 percentage points to 12.1% from 13.9% a year ago. Compared to Q2 2008, AMD's market share grew by 0.1%, and Intel's grew by 0.3%. There is a clear influence of smaller CPU vendors that has affected AMD's share. These smaller vendors are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on a global scale amidst the economic crisis.

Following the release of the R700 Spartan, the most powerful graphics card till date, AMD has noted that the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series products has boosted the company's market share in the discrete graphics industry from 30% to 40%. This has triggered optimism with the company, it expects to achieve the 50% mark against rival NVIDIA corporation, and that's as soon as late 2008, continuing the introduction of its products, surpass NVIDIA in 2009.

AMD also noted that it expects its discrete graphics card to IGP ratio in notebook shipments will be 35:65 in 2009. Meaning there will be growth in the sales of notebooks with discrete graphics in general against integrated graphics. NVIDIA rubbished AMD's comments saying it has the performance lead with its GeForce 200-series graphics products, while AMD claimed its Radeon HD 4800-series were clearly the more advanced lot.