3Q07 is a record quarter for shipments of PC processors, according to market research firm IDC, with mobile chips continuing to do most of the market boosting legwork.
Taiwan technology news site DigiTimes, citing IDC, is reporting overall growth of 14.3% in Q3, with CPU revenues rising by US$7.95bn (that's GB£3.88bn - doesn't sound as much when you say it like that though).
Growth in shipments of chips destined for mobile computers showed the biggest gains - 26.6%. Desktop and server CPU shipments grew 7.7% and 4.6% respectively.
IDC surmises that continued market growth - the second consecutive quarter to beat expectations - is in part down to the price war that Intel and AMD have been waging against each other.
And for many countries, Q3 is the back to school quarter. 'Bloody students' won't settle for desktop PCs; just one of many contributors to the rapid growth of mobile shipments.
IDC also suggests that Vista's got a part to play, with users wanting more than just a budget PC to power the so-far-so-bug-ridden OS. Equipment manufacturers are able to oblige thanks to CPU price cuts.
AMD got an extra 0.4% market share, while Intel lost 0.4%. AMD made up most ground in the mobile market, as might be expected from the above figures. Still, no giant leaps in share taking place, both Intel and AMD firmly entrenched... for now.
Now that we're into the run-up to Christmas, it'll be interesting to see if the growth trends of the last two quarters continue during this one.
