IDC: x86 processor shipments up by 10 percent in Q2

In a new report on the x86 processor market, market analyst IDC is reporting that processor shipment is up 10 percent in Q2 compared to Q1. Rather than any actual recovery, in terms of consumer or business demands for new PCs, IDC says the increase came about due to Intel and its OEM partners "adjusting chip inventories and refreshing their lines of mininotebooks or netbooks that use Intel's Atom processors."

What I found significant is IDC's estimation that one in four of all Intel mobile processors in Q2 were Atom processors, which is Intel's low-powered processor for cheap netbooks. While the numbers seem to show that there is growth in terms of netbooks, some of it at least appears to be eating into sales of traditional laptops.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek

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