TIBURON, CA—March 23, 2006—Q4 wasn’t a total bust for the graphics AIB market, but it certainly
wasn’t anything to brag about either. Jon Peddie Research (JPR) today announced
estimated add-in graphics board (AIB) and supplier market share for the fourth
calendar quarter of 2006, reporting disappointing results.
Graphics AIB vendors shipped approximately 21.1 million
units in Q4’06, accounting for roughly $4.5 billion in revenue. Units were down
2.9% sequentially and down 5.7% year-to-year. While volume was down a bit, ASPs and revenue were down more
substantially. Total AIB revenue was down 9.6% sequentially and 15.1%
year-to-year.
Why the lull? JPR see several reasons:
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Waiting |
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AMD |
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Nvidia |
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Continued |
Despite ending ’06 on a sour note, the big two graphics
add-in card vendors have reasons to be optimistic in 2007, thanks to
Microsoft’s Vista. Vista was fully released in January, and while Vista isn’t
the obvious upgrade that XP was over Windows 98, most buyers of new PCs will
choose Vista and also be a bit more likely to choose a higher performance
add-in board over integrated graphics.
Now unfortunately for AMD, the R600 probably won’t be here
until Q2, and that still may put a damper on AMD’s business until Q3 (or more
likely Q4) for bigger volume. With several factors in play, it’s going to be an
interesting year to watch in the AIB market.