Date: 10/12/2012

68% notebook PCs quadcore based by 2016 compared to 13% in 2012

IHS iSuppli forecasts shipments of notebook PCs configured with quad-core processors will reach 179 million units by 2016, making up 59 percent of all notebooks shipped that year. That compares to 48 million units this year, or 22 percent of all notebooks shipped in 2012.

Other points reported by IHS includes:

In particular, quad-core processors will find increasing penetration among value and mainstream notebooks—defined as those priced less than $700 and $1,200, respectively—since these are more under penetrated in quad-core capacity than in the high-end notebooks, typically more powerful machines priced above $1,200.

Among value notebooks, quad-core processor penetration will grow from 13 percent in 2012 to 68 percent in 2016. By then, value notebooks with older dual-core processors will amount to just 8 percent. The remaining 24 percent in 2016 will be split between models with either six-core or eight-core processors. No value notebooks with six- or eight-core capability will be available before 2015, demonstrating how rare these are on the market. Even for the more powerful mainstream and performance models, six- or eight-core processors will start appearing only in the next two years at very small percentages, before gaining greater traction in 2015 and 2016.

For mainstream notebooks, quad-core processor penetration will climb from 28 percent in 2012 to 49 percent in 2016. The penetration rate by 2016 for mainstream models is less than in the peak year of 2015—but only because six-core units move up in 2016. By then, there no longer will be any mainstream models with dual-core processors; all units will have processors that are quad-core or higher.

The same pattern applies for performance notebooks, with quad-core penetration already at a high 41 percent in 2012. Penetration peaks in 2014 at 71 percent, after which performance models with six-core and eight-core units also make their appearance on the market, driving down quad-core market share.

As more notebook PCs become empowered with quad-core processing ability, a small portion of them will also be featuring built-in Blu-ray optical drives. Shipments of notebook PCs with Blu-ray disks will amount to 49 million units by 2016, equivalent to 16 percent of all shipped notebooks by then. Those numbers compare to 14 million units by the end of this year, or 6 percent of the total notebook market.

The rise in Blu-ray-equipped notebooks will be due to two factors—the continued reduction in the costs of optical disk drives on the one hand; and the growing acceptance of high-definition movie formats on the other. The Blu-ray penetration rate among notebooks will climb even though consumers now favor video downloads to ever-bigger hard drives, as well as streaming direct from video sources. If not for those factors, Blu-ray adoption in notebooks would be even higher.

All notebooks of the future will also be running 64-bit operating systems. Fully 100 percent of PCs—notebooks and desktops alike—will have the capability by 2016, equivalent to some 434 million units. This compares to 68 percent by the end of 2012, or 233 million units.
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N