Press Releases

Workstation Market saw Some Return of Momentum in Q3’11

2011-12-13T20:52:54Z

Workstation Market saw Some Return of Momentum in Q3'11

TIBURON, Calif— December 13, 2011--Last quarter, Jon Peddie Research labeled the workstation market's behavior with a simple one-word description: normal. Shipment results weren't great, but they weren't bad either. Now in less volatile times, no vendor would get enthused by such tepid numbers. But these haven't been those times, as the industry hadn't seen anything resembling normal behavior for quite some time.

From mid-2008 to mid-2011, the market took a hit from the biggest economic downturn in a generation, followed by a relatively steady, but not stutter-free, recovery. Meanwhile, the closely related market for professional graphics, its results a harbinger for workstations, found its recovery pace a bit too brisk, stumbling into a mild — and fortunately short-term — second dip. In that context, the neither hot nor cold results from the workstation market's second quarter might not have elicited celebration, but they at least calmed some still-frayed nerves.

Q2's market stability begged the question: would there be a resumption of growth in the third quarter, more stability, or worse, a return to weakness? Well, Jon Peddie Research has tabulated results, and the numbers look good. Around 1.02 million workstations shipped worldwide in the third quarter, representing robust 12.5% sequential growth as well as 20.1% year-over-year. The quarter saw a new high-water mark for the market, marking the first time shipments have exceeded 1 million units.

"The third quarter did represent a meaningful push forward," notes Jon Peddie Research analyst and Workstation Report author Alex Herrera, "but the question remains as to whether it will last. Global economic uncertainty remains in abundant supply. The financial picture in Europe continues to change on a daily basis — one minute, it's a doomsday scenario and the next a light appears at the end of the tunnel. Until the volatility in financial markets subsides, we have no strong confidence that the workstation market (or any market, for that matter) will find a steady pace forward."

The research firm also reported that among workstations vendors, HP reinforced its top position, despite the company's awkward about-face in its plans for the Personal Systems Group (PSG), the business unit that houses the company's workstation business. Dell remained at number two, though lagging further, while Lenovo gained ground at number three, in part thanks to its nascent joint venture with NEC. And in the closely related market for professional graphics hardware, Nvidia continued its dominance of the market, with its Quadro brand stubbornly refusing to cede much share to a more competitive FirePro line from AMD.

Worldwide CAD Market Report 2012

2011-12-02T20:25:03Z

TIBURON, CA-December 1 2011 Today, Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced the availability of the Worldwide CAD Market Report 2012.

The CAD market, one of the largest and most established software markets is dynamic and growing in new directions.

The CAD Market was worth approximately $5 billion in 2009. It reached $6.4 in 2010 and $7 billion in 2011.
JPR put the total number of CAD users at 18.5 in 2010 and we expect the community increase to 19 million in 2011.
The world is getting rounder in terms of CAD use. CAD revenues are split 37% for the Americas, 38% for EMEA, 21% for Asia, and 4% for ROW.

There are several important trends affecting the growth of the market including:

Worldwide all markets slowed down during the economic recession of 2008-2009 but the engines are starting up again. Asia and India barely slowed and new markets are joining them including Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
In the near term JPR sees slowed growth in several markets as economic uncertainty in the U.S. and Europe bedevil the recovery. The hardest hit market will be AEC Architecture, Engineering, and Construction).
New platforms and new distribution models will lead the market. CAD has long been a high-value product and CAD companies have jealously protected their high margins. The new opportunities opened up by cloud computing, apps, and tablets give CAD companies an opening to “have it all,” high volume, low cost consumer-ish apps along with new ways to offer boutique services to valued subscription customers.
Leaner, more efficient companies are ready to rebuild after the recession years. The companies are looking at ways to retool their businesses for more efficiency.

The CAD report includes market share data among the major CAD vendors, it provides geographic data, and takes a closer look at the larger sub-segments: MCAD, AEC, Process & Power, and GIS. Also included in the report are market forecasts to 2016 and a discussion of the trends that have influenced our forecast. As a bonus, companies that buy the CAD report will have access to online company profiles.

JPR’s 2012 CAD report provides an historical perspective and a look at the future. While the market has seen plenty of commoditization, there are new entrants, and broad opportunity for specialized products.

Analyst Kathleen Maher notes that “today, the CAD industry is more dynamic than ever. It is involved in every aspect of design, build, construct, and manufacture. Increasingly, CAD is becoming part of a visually connected world that can be understood and better managed. There are opportunities in new platforms, new technologies, and new customers in emerging economies. It’s a very good time for the industry.”

Q3 graphics shipments up 16.7% over last quarter18.4% over last year

2011-10-31T16:59:37Z

Intel led the quarter with 36.5% growth, Nvidia had 30% growth

TIBURON, CA-November 1 2011—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 Q3’11.

Shipments during the third quarter of 2011 did (finally) behave according to past years with regard to seasonality, and was higher on a year-to-year comparison for the quarter. 2011 is still an unusual year for the PC and graphics suppliers as businesses take their own path to recovery.

The third quarter of the year is usually the growth quarter and was this year which is a positive sign looking forward. The growth in Q3 comes as a welcome change,—is it inventory building for the holiday season.

The quarter in general

This quarter, Intel celebrated its seventh quarter of embedded processor graphics CPU (EPG, a multi-chip design that combined a graphics processor and CPU in the same package) shipments, and had a very strong double digit growth in desktops and notebooks.
AMD lost in overall market share Intel gained more compared to last quarter and Nvidia declined due to its exiting from the integrated segments.
Year to year this quarter Intel market share increased (9.5%), AMD broke even, and Nvidia slipped -23% in the overall market partially due to the company withdrawing from the integrated segments. However, Nvidia gained 10.9% in desktop discrete.
The quarter’s change in total shipments from last quarter increased 16.7%, above the ten-year average of 13.9%.
AMD’s HPU quarter-to-quarter growth has been extraordinary at an average of 58.4% for desktop and notebook, and Intel’s EPG growth was significant at an average of 23.6%. This is a clear showing of the industry’s affirmation of the value of CPUs with embedded graphics and is in line with our forecasts. The major, and logical, impact is on older IGPs, and some on low-end low-cost add-in boards (AIBS).
Almost 92 million PCs shipped worldwide this quarter, an increase of 8.8% compared to last quarter (based on an average of reports from Dataquest, IDC, and HSI).

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 a GPU embedded in the CPU. The average has grown from 115% in 2001 to almost 160% GPUs per PC.

Discrete graphics processing unit (GPUs) chips and other chips with graphics (integrated graphics processor chipsets—IGPs, x86 CPU heterogeneous processor units— HPUs, andx86 CPU embedded processor units—EPGs) are a leading indicator for the PC market.

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

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

Nvidia is exiting the integrated graphics segments and shifting focus to discrete GPUs. The company showed significant discrete market share gain (30% qtr-qtr). Nvidia credits strong connect with new Intel Sandybridge notebooks. Ironically Nvidia enjoyed some serendipitous sales of IGPs in Q3 due to some older AMD CPU sales in Asia.

AMD’s overall graphics market share dropped 0.3% from last quarter even though the company’s HPU class Fusion APU processors are selling very well.

1 : Total Graphics Chip Market shares (Jon Peddie Research)
	Market share this quarter	Market share last Qtr	Unit Change Qtr-Qtr	Share Change Qtr-Qtr	Market Share last yr
AMD	23.0%	24.4%	9.9%	-5.9%	23.0%
Intel	60.4%	54.8%	28.5%	10.1%	55.1%
Nvidia	16.1%	20.1%	-6.2%	-19.6%	21.0%
Matrox	0.04%	0.0%	0.0%	-14.3%	0.1%
SiS	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
VIA/S3	0.5%	0.6%	-8.9%	-22.0%	0.8%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	16.7%		100.0%

Year to year for the quarter the market increased. Shipments increased to 138.5 million units, up 21.5 million units from this quarter last year.

Embedded Graphics Processors Killing off IGPs; No Threat to Discrete GPUs

2011-10-19T19:02:28Z

Today, Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced its new report on mobile devices, and their processors.

In 2011, with the full scale production of scalar X86CPUs with powerful multi-core, SIMD graphics processing elements, a true inflection point has occurred in the PC and related industries. And, as a result, the ubiquitous and stalwart IGP- integrated graphics processor, is fading out of existence.

For several reasons, many people believed (and some hoped) the CPU and the GPU would never be integrated:

GPUs are characterized by a high level of complexity, with power and cooling demands, and have dramatically different memory management needs.
GPU design cycles are faster than those of the CPU.
GPU has grown in complexity compared to the CPU exceeding the transistor count, and matching or exceeding the die size of the CPU.
The x86 has steadily increased in complexity, power consumption, and become multi-core.

With four times the number transistors possible in the same space as the previous manufacturing node or feature space Moore’s law seems unstoppable, and with the move to 32nm and now 28nm the possibilities for integration of such complex and alien functionality is not only possible and feasible, but a reality.

Jon Peddie, President of JPR, notes a new trend in the impact on discrete GPUs due to the combination of devices being offered with integrated graphics (IGPs, EPGs, and HPUs). "The integrated processors will impact GPU sales and change traditional sales patterns. The trend may even put the category in decline. At least so some believe, but it's not that simple. Nothing in the PC industry is." The EPG/HPU will truly revolutionize the PC and associated industries. The amount of computation capability available in the size, weight, and power consumption of systems equipped with EPG/HPUs coupled with the attractive prices they will carry will upset the market dynamics like never before, and maybe not since the introduction of the PC.
A forecast out to 2016 of all the segments and supplier is provided.

Mobile Devices and Their Semiconductors: Too Many Products, Too Many Suppliers?

2011-10-11T12:29:10Z

Mobile Devices and Their Semiconductors: Too Many Products, Too Many Suppliers?

TIBURON, CA-October 11, 2011 Today, Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced its new report on mobile devices, and their processors.

The market for these devices has exploded creating a market for over two billion processors. According to the report:

Over three quarters of a billion smartphones will ship in 2016
Feature and other phones will hit 869 million units in 2016
Almost 300 million tablets will ship in 2016
E-book readers shipments could reach 100 million a year by 2016
Handheld game consoles will hit 91 million by 2016

The processors powering these devices will be truly amazing, consuming remarkably little power, built in the latest nanometer technology, and delivering unbelievable performance and functionality. And although all of the devices will share some functionality and capabilities, no single device will kill any of the others ... at least immediately. Each device will have a different form, primary function, and price. All will be connected all the time, and most will have 3D displays and cameras.

More than16 processor companies and 4 IP suppliers, will be chasing this market. Compared to the four or five processor companies chasing the PC market that makes the mobile processor market over populated by four-to-one-is a consolidation coming? Are there too many suppliers chasing the same customers?

The report includes a historical perspective including that illustrates the sharp growth devices have enjoyed recently. For example, he first standalone tablet was the GRiDPad in 1989. In 2001 Microsoft reinvented the concept calling it a "pen Computer". And then in 2010 Apple brought the category to life with the iPad. The first smartphone was the IBM Simon in 1992, then Nokia entered the market 1996 and since then, the segment has taken off like a rocket.

The concept for the e-book came from Michael Heart in 1971, and the first battery powered standalone unit was the Rocket eBook in 1998, but it was the Kindle that lit up the market in 2007.

Other popular mobile devices like game consoles, navigation units, portable DVD players, and digital picture frames all use high resolution screens and sophisticated processors known as systems on a chip (SoC).

Workstation market behaving as expected in the second quarter of 2011

2011-09-06T12:10:59Z

TIBURON, Calif- September 6, 2011 - It's been a while since the workstation market's behavior could be described as normal, but that's an appropriate one-word description for the second quarter of 2011 - not great, not bad, but pretty normal. And all things considered, normal is fine. Completing analysis of the workstation and professional graphics market for the second quarter, Jon Peddie Research senior analyst Alex Herrera finds that after the big economic bust of two years ago, followed by an atypically strong growth pattern last year, the market has calmed down in 2011.

Not since the first half of 2008 has the market showed any kind of sustainable growth pattern or even typical cyclical behavior. The market at the end of 2008 and into 2009 saw the same economic collapse that virtually every global market experienced, technology-based or not. And 2010 saw a very welcome rebound with gains that roughly compensated for 2009's losses, with a strong growth pace that was simply unsustainable long term.

Finally but as expected, the market settled down in 2011, taking on a more typical and cyclical pattern. Q1 saw a 4.8% sequential decline, and that really indicated a flat market more than anything, as Q1 often sees a drop-off from end-of-year Q4 buying. Conversely, the second quarter normally sees a modest sequential bump, and a bump there was, as Q2 delivered 906.8 thousand workstations shipped worldwide, representing 5.4% sequential growth.

HP further separates itself as the market leader, while Lenovo shows the most growth
At 42.3% of units in the second quarter, HP is now the clear leader of the workstation market, further distancing itself from number two Dell, at 33.8%. But the growth story from the second quarter came not from the leader but from number three Lenovo, which jumped from 7.9% to 9.9% share of worldwide units

Professional graphics market sees cautious resumption of growth
Tracking workstations, the closely related market for professional graphics hardware was essentially flat as well. All told, the industry - for all intents and purposes, Nvidia and AMD - shipped one and a quarter million units (add-in cards and mobile GPUs), up a typical, cyclical 4.9% sequentially. Commanding 80.9% of total units, Nvidia continues to hold a dominant position in the market. But AMD has been making significant gains of late, taking control of 18.5% of units in the second quarter, a level more than doubled from its low of mid-2008.

Graphics Add-in Board Shipments Decline 15.2% from Last Quarter

2011-08-24T15:09:55Z

Seasonality and worldwide recession to blame

TIBURON, CA-August 23, 2011—Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics Add-in Board (AIB) shipments and sales’ market share for Q2’11. The AIB Report tracks graphics board which carry discrete graphics chips. They are used in desktop PCs, workstations and some other devices such as scientific instruments. They may be sold as after-market products directly to customers or they may be factory installed. In all cases, they represent the higher-end of the graphics industry as discrete chips rather than integrated processors.

Overall shipments of graphics AIBs for the quarter came in below the last quarter at 16.1 million units compared to 19.01 million for Q1’11.

The evolution of the graphics market has resulted in two major super-categories of graphics AIBs: those which carry Nvidia graphics chips and those which carry AMD chips. Nvidia GPU-based boards declined slightly by 0.1% from Q1, while AMD-based boards increased 0.1% for the same period. Sales of AIB products have been directly impacted by the rise of integrated CPUs from Intel and AMD, which have increasingly powerful graphics.

Shipments during the second quarter of 2011 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality but were lower on a year-to-year comparison for the quarter. Q2’11 was down from the previous quarter by 15.2%, and the ten year average for the quarter is -11.2%.

Our forecast for the coming years has been modified since the last report, and is less aggressive on add-in boards (AIBs) due to the prolonged worldwide recession and the impact of embedded graphics on the low end.

The quarter in general

In terms of market share, market leader Nvidia lost share by 0.1% from Q1, 2011, while AMD’s market share increased 0.1% for the same period. On a year-to-year basis AMD lost market share by 0.8% while Nvidia gained 1.1% of market share. Obviously, these are not huge moves in the market and Nvidia still leads in unit shipments.

Table 1: Market shares over time
Market Share	This Quarter Market Share	Last Quarter Market Share	Market Share Change Qtr-Qtr	This quarter Last Year Market Share	Change Yr-Yr
AMD	40.6%	40.5%	0.1%	41.4%	-0.8%
Nvidia	59.0%	59.1%	-0.1%	57.9%	1.1%
Others	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.7%	-0.3%

Over 16 million AIBs shipped in Q2 2011. Nvidia was the leader in unit shipments for the quarter, elevated by double attach and GPU-compute/CUDA sales.

The AIB market is fueled at the high-end by the enthusiast gamer, small in volume (~3m a year) but high in dollars (average spend for an AIB ~$300). The AIB shipment volume comes from the Performance and Mainstream segments. GPU-compute is adding to sales on the high end. The Workstation Market is smaller in unit sales than the enthusiast segment but characterized by even higher average selling prices (ASPs) (average spend for an AIB ~$415).

For the year, the AIB market is expected to hit $13.8 billion, down 33% from 2010 due to a pull back by consumers and a gradual decline in ASP.

The JPR AIB report covers seven regions and reports on the value of AIB sales and units in those regions.

Q2 Surprise: Graphics Shipments up 6.3%; PC Shipments up 2.4% According to Latest Report

2011-08-04T14:05:29Z

TIBURON, CA-August 4, 2011—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 Q2’11.

Shipments during the second quarter of 2011 did not behave according to past years with regard to seasonality, and was higher on a year-to-year comparison for the quarter. 2011 is shaping up to be an anomalous year as businesses take their own path to recovery.

Normally, the second quarter of the year is a slower business quarter in the graphics industry (and in the PC industry as a whole). This year, Q2’11 did not conform to the normal seasonal cycle. Instead, sales were up significantly compared to previous years. The growth in Q2 comes as a welcome change, if not a bit worrying—is it inventory building for back to school and the holiday season, or channel stuffing?

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 Servers.

The quarter in general

In Q2’11, Intel celebrated its sixth quarter of Embedded Processor Graphics CPU (EPG, a multi-chip design that combined a graphics processor and CPU in the same package) shipments, and enjoyed a 21% average growth in Desktops and Notebooks.
AMD and Nvidia lost in overall market share, while Intel grew compared to last quarter.
Year to year this quarter Intel had tremendous market share growth (14.7%), AMD had a loss of 14.2%, and Nvidia slipped 18.4% in the overall market partially due to the company withdrawing from the integrated segments.
The Q2’11 change in total shipments from last quarter increased 6.3%, significantly above the ten-year average of 3.5%, and raising concerns about an inventory buildup.
Netbooks contributed to notebook growth a bit,however, iPads and Android tablets have probably cannibalized some netbook sales.
Over 84 million PCs shipped worldwide in Q2’11, an increase of 2.4% compared to Q1’11, (based on an average of reports from Dataquest, IDC, and HSI) causing speculation that the 6.3% up-swing in graphics could be an inventory buildup and have a negative impact on Q3 or Q4.
AMD’s HPU quarter-to-quarter growth has been extraordinary at an average of 80% for desktop and notebook, and Intel’s EPG growth was significant at an average of 41%. This is a clear showing of the industry’s affirmation of the value of CPUs with embedded graphics and is in line with our forecasts. The major, and logical, impact is on older IGPs, and some on low-end add-in boards (AIBS).

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 160% GPUs per PC.

Since the crash of 2009, 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 to include them in the PC market analysis, or to not include them.

Market shares shifted for the big three, and put pressure on the smaller three, and they showed a decrease in shipments as indicated in Table 1 (units are in millions.)

Intel continues to be the overall market share leader in Q2’11, elevated by Core i5 EPG CPUs, Sandy Bridge, and Pineview Atom sales for Netbooks. AMD gained market share quarter-to quarter and Nvidia lost share. Nvidia is exiting the integrated graphics segments and shifting focus to discrete GPUs. The company showed significant discrete market share gain (30% qtr-qtr) due to they say strong connect with new Intel Sandybridge notebooks. Ironically Nvidia enjoyed some serendipitous sales of IGPs in Q2. AMD share dropped 7.3 points.

Year to year for the quarter the market increased. Shipments increased to 140 million units, up 22 million units from this quarter last year.
	Market share this quarter	Market share last Qtr	Unit Change Qtr-Qtr	Share Change Qtr-Qtr	Market Share last yr
AMD	21.2%	24.7%	-7.3%	-13.9%	24.7%
Intel	60.7%	54.7%	19.6%	11.0%	52.9%
Nvidia	17.5%	19.9%	-5.3%	-12.1%	21.4%
Matrox	0.04%	0.0%	-8.3%	-14.9%	0.1%
SiS	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
VIA/S3	0.5%	0.7%	-20.1%	-25.8%	0.8%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	7.7%		100.0%

Jon Peddie Research Reports Workstation Market Slows to a More Sustainable Pace in Q1’11

2011-06-01T12:00:48Z

TIBURON, Calif— June 1, 2011 - Fortunately and as expected, the workstation market has slowed down. Completing analysis of the workstation and professional graphics market for the first quarter, Jon Peddie Research senior analyst Alex Herrera finds that after a robust rebound beginning in the second half of 2009 and continuing through 2010, the market has found a more modest and sustainable pace. While reduced growth might leave some disappointed, Herrera sees it as a healthy sign the market is stabilizing and averting a second dip, one that the related market for professional graphics hardware couldn’t avoid.

Q1’11 is now in the books, with the quarter seeing 860.0 thousand workstations shipped worldwide, representing a 4.8% sequential decline and an 18.6% year-over-year gain. Both of those figures need to be weighed in context, however, to better understand the actual condition of the market. The year-over-year growth number has to be taken with a grain of salt, as a year ago the market had not yet fully recovered from the dramatic downturn of late 2008 and early 2009.

As Herrera notes, "An exuberant year-over-year number for last quarter doesn’t translate into an exuberant outlook for the market. And the first quarter in stable economic conditions typically sees a modest sequential fall-off from Q4, on the order of what we saw." So despite the fact that one number was substantially up and the other down, read in context the fourth quarter results would indicate a flattening marketplace.

HP firmly takes hold of number one spot in market, as Dell lags further

Over the second half of the last decade, HP had made steady gains in its chase of market leader Dell. And in Q3'10, HP pushed ahead to put an appreciable gap over Dell, a gap it extended even further in the fourth quarter. JPR was expecting a more dramatic separation of the two, an assumption that the results from the first quarter of 2011 validate. At 42.9% of units, HP is now the undisputed king of the workstation market, clearly distancing itself from Dell at 34.8%.

Professional graphics market sees cautious resumption of growth

For the closely related market for professional graphics hardware, the first quarter saw Nvidia (with its Quadro brand) and AMD (FirePro) combining to ship around 1.19 million units, up 5.8% sequentially. The market bounced had back very strongly in the first half of 2010 from the recession, mounting a pace JPR had thought was a little too hot in the context of the broader workstation and tech markets. As such, the firm saw the chance for a second dip in the market, one that eventually did manifest itself, occurring not only in Q3'10 but extending into Q4'10 as well.

Herrera attributed the softer shipments in both quarters to an overly optimistic sell-in in the record-setting quarters prior, rather than due to any long-term malaise. "The fourth quarter flatness was more about continuing digestion at the OEM level, and we didn't expect the dip to be severe nor protracted. Fortunately, Q1'11 has delivered a solid sign that the preceding slide was nothing particularly consequential."

About the JPR Workstation Report

Now in its twelfth year, JPR’s Workstation Report - Professional Computing Markets and Technologies has established itself as the essential reference guide for hardware and software vendors and suppliers serving the workstation and professional graphics markets.

Subscribers to the JPR Workstation Report receive two in-depth reports per year providing a comprehensive analysis of the vendors and technologies driving the workstation platform. Clients also receive four quarterly reports detailing and analyzing market results for each calendar quarter. For information about purchasing the JPR Workstation Report, please call 415- 435-9368 or visit Jon Peddie Research at http://www.jonpeddie.com.

Based in Tiburon, California, Jon Peddie Research provides consulting, research, and other specialized services to technology companies, including graphics development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product development.

Graphics Add-in Board Shipments - Increase Modest 0.2% from Last Quarter

2011-05-10T17:45:14Z

Helped by double attach and GPU-compute

TIBURON, CA-May 10, 2011—Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics Add-In Board (AIB) shipments and sales’ market share for Q1’11.

Overall shipments of graphics AIBs for the quarter came in slightly above the last quarter at 19.03 million units compared to 18.84 million for Q4’10. Shipments in Q1 2011 did not exceed the same quarter a year ago. Nvidia unit shipments decreased by 2% from Q4, while AMD increased 5.7% for the same period.

Shipments during the first quarter of 2011 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality but was lower on a year-to-year comparison for the quarter. In comparison, Q4’10 did not conform to the normal seasonal cycle, but was down a bit compared to previous years, so the growth in Q1, even though modest, was a positive change.

Our forecast for the coming years has been modified since the last report, and is less aggressive on add-in boards (AIBs).

The quarter in general

In terms of market share, market leader Nvidia lost share by 2.7% from Q4, 2010, while AMD’s market share increased 4.4% for the same period. On a year-to-year basis AMD increased its market share by 16.8% while Nvidia lost 8.4% of market share.

Table 1: Market shares over time
Market share	This Quarter Market Share	last Quarter Market Share	Market Share change Qtr-Qtr	This quarter Last Year Market Share	Change Yr-Y
AMD	40.46%	38.77%	4.37%	34.65%	16.79%
Nvidia	59.12%	60.77%	-2.71%	64.50%	-8.35%
Others	0.42%	0.47%	-9.99%	0.85%	-50.62%

Over 19 million AIBs shipped in Q1 2011. Nvidia was the leader in unit shipments for the quarter, elevated by double attach and GPU-compute/CUDA sales.

The AIB market is fueled at the high-end by the enthusiast gamer, small in volume (~9m a year) but high in dollars (average spend for an AIB ~$300). The volume comes from the Performance and Mainstream segments. And GPU-compute is adding to sales on the high end. The Workstation Market is smaller in unit sales than the enthusiastic segment but characterized by higher average selling prices (ASPs).

For the year the AIB market is expected to hit $19.8 billion, down 4.5% from 2010 due to a gradual decline in ASP even though units shipments will be up.

The JPR AIB report covers seven regions and reports on the value of AIB sales and units in those regions.

Surprising Q1 Results, Graphics Shipments Up 10.3% While PC Shipments Down 5%

2011-05-03T15:41:39Z

TIBURON, CA-May 2 2011-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.

The quarter in general

In Q1’11, Intel celebrated its fifth quarter of Embedded Processor Graphics CPU (EPG, a multi-chip design that combined a graphics processor and CPU in the same package) shipments, and enjoyed its second quarter of HPU (heterogeneous processor unit) shipments.
AMD and Intel gained in overall market share at the expense of Nvidia from the last quarter.
Year to year this quarter AMD had tremendous market share growth, Intel had above average growth, and Nvidia slipped significantly.
The Q1’11 change in total shipments from last quarter increased 10.3%, significantly above the ten-year average of -4% raising concerns about an inventory buildup that will have to run down in Q2.
Netbooks continued to contribute to notebook growth. However, the iPad has probably cannibalized some netbook sales.
Around 83 million PCs shipped worldwide in Q1’11, a drop of 5.4% compared to Q4’10, (based on an average of reports from Dataquest, IDC, and iSuppli) causing speculation on that the 10% up-swing in graphics could be inventory buildup and will have a negative impact on Q2.

Graphics chips (GPUs) and chips with graphics (IGPs, HPUs, and EPGs) are the leading indicator of the PC market. At least one, and often two GPUs are present in every PC shipped. It can take a form of a discrete chip, integrated in the chipset or embedded in the CPU. The average has grown from 115% in 2001 to almost 145% GPUs per PC.

The Q3 to Q4 market change of 2008 was the worst the industry has ever seen with shipments down, -35%. Q4 to Q1 in 2009/2010 marked a shift back into a quarterly seasonality situation, albeit below the ten-year average, that return to normal seasonality was amplified this quarter.

Table 1: Market shares
Vendor	This Quarter Market share	last Quarter Market share	Unit Growth Qtr-Qtr	This quarter last year Market share	Growth Yr-Y
AMD	24.8%	24.2%	13.3%	21.5%	15.4%
Intel	54.4%	52.5%	14.2%	49.6%	9.7%
Nvidia	20.0%	22.5%	-1.7%	28.0%	-28.4%
Matrox	0.05%	0.1%	-11.8%	0.1%	-16.6%
SiS	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	-100.0%
VIA/S3	0.7%	0.8%	1.2%	0.7%	5.3%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	10.3%	100.0%

Over 125 million graphics chips and CPUs with graphics shipped in Q1 2011. Intel was the leader in unit shipments for the quarter, elevated by Clarksdale, continued Atom sales for Netbooks, and Sandy Bridge. However, on a quarter-to-quarter basis AMD gained market share at Nvidia’s expense.

Jon Peddie Research reports workstation market continues to experience healthy growth

2011-03-09T12:00:43Z

TIBURON, Calif— March 9th, 2011--The fourth quarter of 2010 saw the workstation market take a noteworthy step forward in its journey back from recessionary lows, setting a new high water mark for quarterly unit volume. Completing analysis of the workstation and professional graphics market for the fourth quarter, Jon Peddie Research senior analyst Alex Herrera reports the industry shipped 903.7 thousand workstations, representing a solid-though-moderate 6.4% sequential gain.

Continued tempered growth should help reduce the potential for another dip in the workstation market, a dip the related market for professional graphics couldn't avoid in the previous quarter. Workstation-class GPUs had bounced back far more strongly than workstations in the first half of 2010, but suffered from a case of indigestion in the second half as OEMs' orders appeared to run a bit too fast for actual demand.

"With professional graphics shipments most often a short-term prognosticator for the fortunes of workstations, the former's recent history raised concern we might see the latter experience its own double-dip," Herrera commented. "But with numbers for Q3 and Q4 coming in more restrained, we're more optimistic that workstations will avoid a second sustained, non-cyclical drop in the near term."

HP makes its case for number one … again

Today representing a virtual duopoly in the global market for workstation, HP and Dell had spent the several previous quarters jostling for market leadership, each taking a turn with slim volume leads, with neither seizing a sustainable advantage over the other. HP, which just five years ago trailed Dell by nearly 12 percentage points, had steadily closed the gap and over the last two quarters again managed to edge out its rival.

But this time, HP's surge appears more vigorous, with the company in Q4 taking four points more volume share than the former number one (41.3% and 37.2% , respectively). Herrera believes this time HP's advantage won't be short-lived, but instead represents a long-term changing of the guard at the top of the workstation market.

Professional graphics market flat, and that's not necessarily a bad thing

The third quarter decline in professional graphics units was followed by a flat Q4, with Nvidia and AMD combining to ship around 1.1 million units. But while a lack of growth would normally be disappointing, in the context of the previous quarters, some temporary sluggishness isn't all bad. Rather, Herrera sees the stability as a sign the sell-in and sell-out rates are reaching a healthier equilibrium and should set the stage for a resumption of growth in the first quarter numbers for 2011, especially considering the industry has been gearing for a host of new high-volume entry-class models based on Intel's new Sandy Bridge generation of processors.

Jon Peddie Research reports add-in board market worth $4.4 billion in Q4, 2010-$17 billion for 2010

2011-03-03T15:52:40Z

Over 18 million boards sold in the quarter

TIBURON, CA-March 3, 2011- Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics Add-In Board (AIB) shipments and sales' market share for Q4'10.

Overall shipments of graphics AIBs for the year, 2010 came in lower than the recession year 2009 at 72.8 million units compared to 75.3 million for 2009 - a disappointing result given the enthusiastic start of the year. Shipments in Q4 2010 did not exceed Q3 as expected. Nvidia increased its shipments by 4.1% from Q3, while AMD declined -4.8% for the same period.

And in terms of market share, market leader Nvidia increased its share by 3.6% from Q3, while AMD's market share declined -5.2% for the same period. On a year-to-year basis AMD increased its market share by 12.6% while Nvidia lost 6.2% of market share.

Table 1: Market shares over time
Market share	This Quarter Market share	last Quarter Market share	Unit Growth Qtr-Qtr	This quarter last year Market share	Growth Yr-Y
AMD	38.8%	40.9%	-5.2%	34.5%	12.6%
Nvidia	60.8%	58.7%	3.6%	64.8%	-6.2%
Others	0.4%	0.4%	13.7%	0.8%	-44.0%

The AIB market is fueled at the high-end by the gamer, small in volume (~3m a year) but high in dollars (average spend for an AIB ~$300.) The volume comes from the mainstream. And GPU-compute is adding to sales on the high end. The workstation market is about the same size as the gamer, but much it is characterized by higher average selling prices (ASPs).

For the year the AIB market hit $17.2 billion, up 0.8% from 2009 showing a gradual rise in ASP.

The decline in unit shipments of desktop AIBs is due to two factors - the erosion of the low end (Value segment) by the Integrated Processor Units (IGPs) and embedded CPU graphics (e.g., AMD's Fusion, and Intel's Clarkstown), and the shift in market share to notebooks, laptops, and tablet. However, that is being somewhat offset by the increase in sales of AIBs for GPU-compute, and by the use of two or more AIBs in high-end gaming and workstation systems.

Jon Peddie Research Announces 2011 International PC Gaming Hardware Estimates

2011-02-25T13:24:14Z

Jon Peddie Research estimates 2011 expenditures on PC gaming hardware are set to jump to over $22 billion globally, with a 27% gain in 2011 across the three segmentations of the market; Mainstream, Performance, and Enthusiast.

TIBURON, Calif. – February 24, 2011 – New PCgamers worldwide who are hungry for the best may be giving the PC hardware industry a welcome boost this year. The unusual spike in PC hardware growth is due to various influences, says Ted Pollak, Senior Gaming Analyst for Jon Peddie Research (JPR): Pollak notes the natural cycle of PC hardware purchases from historical inflection points, system demands of modern FPS (first person shooters) and RTS (real-time strategy) titles, cheaper high resolution displays, SSDs (solid state drives), and the convenience of digital distribution services like Steam and Direct2Drive. But Pollak also attributes growth to newly converted PC gamers tiring of the limitations of aging console platforms, the widely applauded advancements in Direct X 11, and the increasing appetite of PC gamers for high quality speaker systems, headsets, mice, cases, cooling, and other accessories and customizations.

A Global Phenomenon

JPR identifies a very strong growth trend for systems, accessories, and upgrades in Asia. China is approaching $2.7 billion in expenditures, as gaming continues to grow in popularity and internet café’s upgrade machines to run newer titles. Russia is also forecasted to make significant increases in PC Gaming hardware expenditures, showing notable growth in the most expensive Enthusiast class and an amazing 22% CAGR in the Mainstream sector out to 2014. The profile of the typical gamer has changed. Most gamers are technology enthusiasts equipped with the best cameras, several computers, new games, handheld consoles, and often, a new phone every year. In addition to games they are often photo and video enthusiasts who place extreme demands on their systems.

Jon Peddie, President of JPR, notes that interest in 3D capable machines and displays is growing and there is rising demand from PC gamers for monitors with higher resolution and better color capabilities. Traditionally used by graphic designers, “wide gamut” displays are capable of showing more of the color spectrum, often making games look better. Peddie also notes that Enthusiast PC gamers are showing interest in displays that exceed 1080p (the maximum resolution that HDTV and game consoles are capable of utilizing).

Mainstream Sector is Significant

The report also highlights the multi-billion dollar market opportunity for semiconductor companies and system integrators who market the game capabilities of sub $1000 PC systems. Jon Peddie Research has identified significant interest in the game capabilities of even the lowest level systems in the $500 range, as games offered through social networks and casual game sites claim more interest from consumers. This is of particular importance in Intel and AMD’s race to provide the best graphics processing with their integrated chips that include the capabilities of both CPUs and GPUs.

Jon Peddie Research reports disappointing 4th quarter

2011-01-31T16:28:01Z

Holding our breath for 2011

TIBURON, CA-January 31 2011-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 Q4’10.

Overall shipments of graphics devices for the year, 2010 came in below expectations with an unimpressive 4.3% total year to year growth—a disappointing result given the enthusiastic start of the year. Q4 of 2010 did not boost the year as expected. Instead of the traditional seasonal pickup, market leader Intel showed decline, which affected the overall results.

Table 1: Growth rates from 2006 to 2010
		2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Total Graphics Chips CAGR '06-'11:	5.53%	316.5	351.7	373.1	414.2	432.2

Over 113 million graphics chips and CPUs with graphics shipped in Q4 2010. Intel was the leader in unit shipments for Q4’10, elevated by Clarksdale, continued Atom sales for Netbooks, and Sandy Bridge. However, on a quarter-to-quarter basis AMD and Nvidia gained market share at Intel’s expense.

Table 2: Market shares
Vendor	This Quarter Market share	last Quarter Market share	Unit Growth Qtr-Qtr	This quarter last year Market share	Growth Yr-Y
AMD	24.2%	23.0%	2.3%	21.7%	11.2%
Intel	52.5%	55.2%	-7.3%	51.1%	2.9%
Nvidia	22.5%	21.0%	4.1%	26.5%	-15.1%
Matrox	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	30.1%
SiS	0.0%	0.0%	-100.0%	0.0%	-100.0%
VIA/S3	0.8%	0.8%	-1.9%	0.7%	19.5%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	-2.6%	100.0%	0.0%

AMD reported Graphics was 26% of the company’s total sales, an increase of 8.7% sequentially and 0.7% from last year. The graphics business benefited from a double-digit volume increase.

Intel reported revenue from chipset and other revenue of $1.68 billion in Q1, however that does not include embedded graphics CPUs.

Nvidia’s quarter, which straddles the calendar quarters reported revenues of $844 million for their Fiscal Q3’11 which is from September to the end of January. Their next quarter ends in April.

What happened?

We were told by the sharpshooters that this was going to be a 15% to 17% growth year for the PC. Gartner and IDC reported the year came in at ~13%. But Graphics are a leading indicator, a sell-in part, and lackluster sales of graphics are a bad-news bellwether for the PC industry.

So we’re getting mixed results and messages. Some analysts are saying tablets— or more precisely, the iPad, has cut into low end PC sales. If that’s true then it would for sure show up in graphics. And given how low the growth was for graphics it looks like there may be a causality relationship. We will be posting a blog (on www.jonpeddie.com) on the pros and cons of counting tablets and other devices as “PCs.”

This uncertainty in definition, methodology, and sell through is shaking up the fluffy white stuff in our snow globe and making seeing into the future challenging. However, we continue to be optimistic about the future for PCs into 2011. There is momentum for machines used in business, creative content, and entertainment. The iPad and coming tables will remain very attractive adjacent devices and will primarily affect the low end of notebook sales.

Although numbers were down in Q4 we expect 2011 to be a strong year for GPU sales. The full adoption of DX 11 for mainstream and high-end systems will take place putting a premium on GPU sales, AMDs Fusion and Intel’s Sandy Bridge should hit their stride. Couple all that with an improving US and World economy, and 2011 should be solid year all-around.