According to the latest IDC report, the worldwide CPU market in 2011 grew by 3.6 percent in unit shipments and 13.2 percent in revenues.

Total revenues hit $41 billion, while average sales prices rose by more than 9 percent. Interestingly, demand for server chips grew 9 percent, while mobile and desktop chip shipments grew by 3.9 and 2.7 percent.

In Q4 Intel reigned supreme with an 80.3 percent market share, gaining 0.1 percent sequentially. AMD’s share was 19.6 percent, and it lost 0.1 percent to Intel. Intel also dominated the server/workstation market with a 94.3 percent share and it also grabbed an 82.3 percent share in the mobile PC market.

IDC's forecast for PC microprocessor unit shipment growth in 2012 is 5.1 percent. The HDD shortage is over, the US economy is improving and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe seems to be subsiding, for now at least.