The computer industry has been hurting with the poor global economy and many consumers going for netbooks rather than full notebook computers. According to IDC, the global CPU market grew for Q2 2009 despite the poor economy and sluggish sales.

The research firm says that the reason for the growth in the market can be attributed to OEM inventory refresh and not a significant increase in the demand for computers. CPU shipments rose 10.1% for Q2 compared to Q1 while compared to shipments in Q2 of 2008 there was a decline of 15.3% in shipments.

Intel hit a home run with its Atom line of processors for mini notebooks with shipments increasing 34% for the quarter compared to Q1 2009. IDC figures that Atom netbook processors represent 25% of Intel's mobile PC shipments.