Most vendors had a good quarter but JPR notes it will take until 2010 before the market is again at 2008 levels.
After the channel stopped ordering GPUs and depleted inventory in anticipation of a long drawn out worldwide recession in Q3 and Q4 of 2008, expectations were hopeful, if not high that Q1β09 would change for the better. In fact, Q1 showed improvement but it was less than expected, or hoped. Instead, Q2 was a very good quarter for vendors β counter to normal seasonality β but then these are hardly normal times. Itβs clear the channel is gearing up for what it thinks is going to be a robust back-to-school season.The report also contains details about the marketshare of each graphics vendor, the big three (Intel, NVIDIA and AMD) saw their shipments rise but smaller players that hold just a tiny fraction of the market like Matrox, SIS and VIA/S3 saw their shipments decline.
Traditionally, Q1 to Q2 sales decline due to summer vacations and preparation for the fall. This year preparation seems to have gotten off to an early start.
Things probably aren't going to get back to the normal seasonality till Q3 or Q4 this year, and we won't hit the levels of 2008 until 2010. However, people still need to buy things. Old computers will fail, new employees will be hired and need machines, and of course software upgrades like Windows 7 will be coming along.
We are still predicting an upturn in the PC market in Q3 and Q4 and in particular for the graphics market (which serves not just PCs but aerospace and automotive, industrial systems, medical systems, kiosks and POS). We are optimistic because these are seasonally the best quarters.
Intel is still the biggest player in the graphics chip market with a marketshare of 51.2 percent, up from 49.7 percent in the quarter before, while NVIDIA dropped from 31.1 percent to 29.2 percent. AMD ranks third, the company saw its shipment rise from 17.1 percent to 18.4 percent of the market.