Intel steals market share from AMD

MARKET RESEARCH firm Isuppli released its third quarter microprocessor sales figures on Wednesday, reporting that Intel took a little market share from AMD during the period.

Intel got an 80.4 per cent share of global microprocessor revenue in Q3, 1.7 per cent higher than in the same quarter last year. AMD booked 12.1 per cent market share during Q3, off 1.8 per cent year over year from Q3 of 2007.

Both chip makers saw a little sales growth from Q2, with Chipzilla up 0.1 per cent during the most recent quarter while its smaller rival AMD gained 0.3 per cent in the same period.

Isuppli said both companies took gains from smaller players that found it more difficult to compete during the recent global financial turmoil.

Both vendors' relatively strong revenues were largely due to sales of notebook chips, Isuppli said. It reported that the PC market maintained healthy growth, despite signs of weakening demand. Overall chip shipments increased in the range of 12 to 14 per cent over Q3 of 2007.

Isuppli is forecasting a full year 2008 increase in shipments of 12.5 per cent over last year. However, it recently reduced its forecast for 2008 semiconductor demand and warned that aggregate semiconductor industry revenues are dropping and the market could go south if worldwide financial troubles get worse. µ

L'Inq
Informationweek