Worldwide personal computer processor unit shipments grew 14 percent quarter over quarter (QoQ) and 15.8 percent year over year (YoY); market revenue grew 7.6 percent QoQ and 4.1 percent YoY to $8.3 billion. Intel's new Atom processor for ultra low-cost mobile personal computers (which Intel calls "netbooks") made a notable difference in the overall market performance; without Atom, unit shipments grew 8.3 percent QoQ and 8.7 percent YoY.

"Not considering the effects of Atom, the overall market still grew at a decent pace in the third quarter,” says Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. “Intel's and AMD's shipments grew at a rate only slightly slower than typical for a third quarter, and seasonal demand appeared reasonable up until September. By segment, while the mobile processor segment grew aggressively, the server segment was soft."

In terms of processor vendor shares, on an overall unit basis, Intel earned 80.8 percent market share, a gain of 1.1 percent, AMD finished with 18.5 percent, a loss of 1.2 percent, and VIA Technologies earned 0.6 percent.

By form factor, in the mobile personal computer processor segment, Intel earned 87.4 percent share, a gain of 0.8 percent, AMD finished with 11.5 percent, a loss of 1.1 percent, and VIA earned 1.2 percent, a gain of 0.3 percent.

In the personal computer server/workstation processor segment, Intel finished with 85.6 percent market share, a loss of 0.6 percent and AMD earned 14.4 percent, a gain of 0.6 percent. In the desktop Personal Computer processor segment, Intel and AMD earned 73.5 percent and 26.4 percent share respectively; share changes were negligible.

Due to the market's strong performance through the first three quarters of 2008 and anticipated high volume of Atom processors, IDC has raised its personal computer processor market unit forecast for this year to 18.0 percent. However, the worldwide demand environment looks weak, and both Intel and AMD indicated an uncertain outlook for the market. As a result, IDC is conservative about 2009 and will be lowering its upcoming personal computer unit forecast for the year.

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