Friday, 1 June 2007

Dual Core CPUs Set to Be the Norm in China

CCID Consulting, China's research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong, forecasts that dual core CPUs will be the popular norm in China after the summer vacation sales promotion. CCID Consulting's latest Analysis...

CCID Consulting, China's research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong, forecasts that dual core CPUs will be the popular norm in China after the summer vacation sales promotion.

CCID Consulting's latest Analysis Report on China's Computer Parts Market in 2007Q1 shows that in 2007Q1 overall CPU sales maintained a rather fast growth. Price drops turned users into active purchasers. Large numbers of product were released. Low- and middle-end products were still the mainstream consumption, while products with high price/performance ratio were in short supply. In particular, in March, as students returned to school after their vacations, the whole DIY market greeted its peak season, adding splendor to goods sales in Q1. CPU sales volume was up by 36per cent.

"Dual core" became a household word in 2006. Every DIYer dreamt to have a dual core processor. To compete for this huge market, Intel and AMD waged intense price wars in early 2007. The two camps competed firmly in the dual core market. AMD carried the "high price/performance ratio" banner high. The price of its mainstream 65nm Athlon 64 dual core processor has now fallen to around 600 Yuan. There is still some room for further price cuts. As Intel has basically cleared off its single-core CPU storehouse, its entry-level dual core processor "Pentium D" series are bound to see price dives in an effort to compete for the low- and middle-end market. This will make the series more competitive in terms of price. The price of the "Core" series for the middle- and high-end market has also fallen below 1,000 Yuan, thus affordable to DIYers at large. Rising price/performance ratios will make the year 2007 a year of penetration for dual core CPUs.