PC Graphics Shipments Increase 11% in Fourth Quarter 2003;Mobile Shipments Hit Record Levels

TIBURON, CA—February 3, 2004—Jon Peddie Research (JPR), a leading research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, today announced estimated graphics shipments and supplier market share for the fourth calendar quarter of 2003. Detailed fourth-quarter results, as well as annual results for 2003, are available in the Q4’03 edition of Jon Peddie’s Market Watch, the firm’s quarterly graphics survey. Market Watch provides an in-depth look at the PC graphics market and includes unit shipment and segment market share data, trend analysis, shipment forecasts, and profiles of major suppliers.

Jon Peddie Research estimates that approximately 62.18 million PC graphics devices shipped from eight suppliers in Q4’03, an 11.2% increase from the previous quarter. The mobile graphics segment achieved 26% growth quarter-to-quarter, outpacing an 8.1% growth rate in the desktop segment. Approximately 12.20 million mobile graphics processors shipped from six suppliers in Q4’03, an industry record. In addition, shipments of integrated graphics chipsets for notebook platforms surpassed those of discrete (stand-alone) mobile graphics processors for the first time, to claim a greater than 50% share of the mobile graphics market.

“Robust growth occurred in both the discrete desktop segment and in the mobile graphics market as a whole during the fourth quarter,” said Lisa Epstein, a senior analyst at Jon Peddie Research. “Strong growth in the fourth quarter is typical for the PC graphics industry; however, mobile graphics shipments, and shipments of mobile IGCs in particular, exceeded expectations. The wide adoption by manufacturers of Intel’s Centrino technology has created a general upswing in demand for mobile platforms, spurring sales of notebook graphics,” Epstein concluded.

The mobile IGC segment led growth in Q4’03, with shipments increasing 35.9% as compared to Q3’03. The discrete mobile segment grew by a more moderate 17.2%. Discrete desktop graphics shipments increased by 19.3%. Shipment growth in the discrete desktop segment was driven primarily by ATI’s strong showing during the quarter with its current generation of DirectX 8 and DirectX 9 stand-alone products. Shipments of desktop IGC parts were essentially flat in Q4’03.

As compared to Q3’03, Intel saw a 3.9% increase in graphics shipments in Q4’03 and was the largest supplier of PC graphics devices worldwide but with a reduced share of the total graphics market. ATI was the second largest supplier in Q4’03, with a 30.4% increase in graphics shipments and an increased share of the total graphics market. In third position, Nvidia saw a 9.5% increase in graphics shipments in Q4’03, with a less than 1% decline in its share of the total graphics market. The following table lists the ranking and relative market share, based on unit shipments in Q4’03, of the eight major graphics suppliers to the PC industry.