Intel Tops in Processor Revenue

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.