While Intel continues to control the lion's share of the worldwide processor market, AMD is improving its position with new products.Intel grabbed the lion's share of world's microprocessors revenue in the
first quarter of 2008, while Advanced Micro Devices managed to bounce back from
a disappointing 2007, according to July 1 report from iSuppli.
During the first quarter of 2008, Intel claimed 79.7 percent of the world's
microprocessor revenue, an increase of 1.2 percent from the fourth quarter of
2007. However, the company did lose less than 1 percent of its market share
from the first quarter of 2007, when it claimed 80.4 percent of worldwide
revenues.
On the other hand, AMD's
market share for the first quarter hit 13 percent, a decrease of 1.1
percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. AMD did increase its market share 2.2
percent from the first quarter of 2007, when it controlled 10.9 percent of
world's processor revenues.
The iSuppli report is a compilation of the world's microprocessor revenue
and includes x86, RISC and other types of general-purpose chips. While the
research firm did not offer an overall dollar amount, Gartner estimated
that the worldwide semiconductor market would be worth $286.5 billion in
2008.
The iSuppli report also found that the average selling price of chips
remained stable in the first quarter—a sign that the price war between AMD
and Intel has subsided for now. Together, both chip companies account for 92.7
percent of all worldwide processors revenue.
It seems that Intel and AMD each
benefited from a PC market that, so far, has not succumbed to the sluggish U.S.
economy. The PC market has benefited from notebooks sales, especially sales to
consumers, and AMD
recently released its "Puma" platform for laptops, while Intel
will release its Centrino 2 platform on July 14.
While AMD's share of the market pales in
comparison to Intel, the iSuppli report found that the company managed to
increase its share of revenue thanks to some of its new products for desktops,
including its
quad-core Phenom chips and its tri-core processors. These new processors,
coupled with the company's lower prices, helped AMD
in the consumer market and with smaller business buyers.
The increase in market share for AMD
could also be a sign that the company has managed to bounce back after its
failed attempt to launch both its quad-core Phenom processors and quad-core
Opteron chip in 2007. Since then, AMD
has fixed the design flaws within the silicon and has been shipping a steady
supply of parts.
Desktops & Notebooks 
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