In another sign of surging demand for PCs, Intel shipped its most ever laptop processors during Q1, the company announced in a Thursday earnings call.
The chipmaker didn’t break down the exact shipment number for laptop processors, but in Q1, volumes soared by 54% year over year, according to an Intel stock exchange filing. “The PC ecosystem in particular is experiencing resurgence,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said on the call.
Indeed, demand for PCs has soared to levels not seen in a decade, due to COVID-19 forcing millions of people to work and study at home. However, Gelsinger expects the demand to persist in 2021, despite the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
“2021 is shaping up to be the largest PC market ever,” he said. “In many markets, one PC in every home is no longer enough. The number of PCs per household, what we call PC density, is increasing. We are seeing strong growth in education, where on a global basis, the number of PCs per hundred students and teachers still remains in the single digits.”
However, the demand may not translate into higher profits for Intel. Despite the record-breaking shipment number, the average selling price for Intel laptop chips fell in Q1 by 23%. The company says this is due to Intel shipping more chips for consumer and education PCs, like Chromebooks, which can use cheaper processors.
On the desktop front, Intel’s shipment volumes in Q1 fell by 4% year over year. This occurred as the company faces heated competition from AMD’s Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs, which arrived last fall. AMD’s processors have received rave reviews from the tech press while raising worries that Intel’s own desktop CPUs are falling behind.
Overall, Intel’s revenue for Q1 was down 1% from last year. Although the company’s PC shipments were up, revenue from Intel’s data center business fell by 20%.
