NetbookTech

IDC is out with the first quarter 2009 worldwide PC processor shipment numbers and the news is both good and bad for the industry as a whole. First the bad news – PC processor shipments fell “significantly” for the 2nd quarter in a row – even when you take into account the normal seasonal drop in processor shipments for this time of the year. Yet despite the gloomy numbers, IDC believes the market decline is indeed slowing. Oh yes.. and that’s the good news.

Now onto numbers. IDC reports that overall worldwide PC processor shipments dropped –10.9% from Q4 of 2008 to Q1 of 2009. That’s not as bad as the previous quarterly drop (which was –17% from Q3 of ‘08 to Q4 of ‘08) but still not very pretty at all.

Now the relevant statistic to readers of NetbookTech has to do with Intel Atom processor shipment numbers. According to IDC, Intel shipments of the Atom processor declined –33% in Q1 2009 when compared to Q4 of 2008. Even more interesting is the fact that IDC estimates Atom processor shipments to constitute roughly 21 percent of Intel’s overall mobile PC processor shipments for the 1st quarter of this year. Yet despite this, the Atom processor makes up roughly 6.5 percent of overall mobile PC processor revenues during the same period of time.

What does this mean for Intel? The Atom processor might very well be cannibalizing higher end mobile processor sales which could end up eating away the bottom line for Intel.

Another side effect of slowing Atom processor shipments? A possibly large inventory of Atom-based systems (netbooks/nettops) which could very well be a boon for consumers. Why? Vendors will eventually need to clear out this inventory which ultimately means sale prices for netbooks and nettops – all very good news for consumers.

Check out IDC’s press release for additional information on both Intel and AMD and the industry as a whole.

[Check it out]