Intel PC Market Share Lead over AMD Grows, iSuppli Says

Intel, fueled by a slight upswing in demand for PCs, saw its share of the global chip market grow to 80.6 percent in the second quarter, the highest level in almost four years, according to research company iSuppli. Demand for Intel chips spanned desktops, laptops and servers. Meanwhile, rival AMD saw its share drop. AMD was not helped by the slight jump in PC demand because its average selling price was lower in the second quarter over the first, iSuppli said.

Aided by a small uptick in demand for PCs, Intel saw its share of the microprocessor market grow to 80.6 percent in the second quarter, a level that the chip maker hadn't seen in almost four years, according to research company iSuppli.

By contrast, rival Advanced Micro Devices' share dropped to 11.5 percent, down .4 percentage points from the same period in 2008, iSuppli said in a report issued Sept. 14.

"Intel benefited as the global PC market took a first small step toward recovery in the second quarter, with global shipments rising by 1 percent from the first quarter," iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins said in a statement.

Intel's 80.6 percent share was a bump up from 79.2 percent share it held during the same period in 2008, and a jump up from the 79.1 percent the company had in the first quarter.

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AMD saw its market share drop 1.4 points from the first quarter despite the increased demand for PCs. Wilkins said AMD's slide was fueled by the fact that its chips were selling at a lower average price than in the first quarter.

Demand for Intel's newest processors appeared in all segments, from desktops to notebooks to servers, according to iSuppli. That was despite the fact that in the overall PC market, only the notebook space saw growth over the second quarter.

While releasing its second-quarter financial numbers, Intel officials said they were encouraged by buying trends in the PC space. In August, Intel raised its third-quarter expectations.

Both Intel and AMD have been aggressive in pushing out new chips in 2009, despite the crushing global recession. Intel has launched chips with its "Nehalem" architecture for high-end and mainstream PCs, and servers with two sockets.

Nehalem chips for embedded devices and servers with four sockets are on their way, according to officials, as are the company's first chips built with its 32-nanometer manufacturing process.

AMD in August rounded out its six-core "Istanbul" Opteron family of server chips with a low-power Opteron model, and is planning the release of a 12-core Opteron in 2010.

The iSuppli report comes the same day that Intel announced a significant executive shakeup and an internal reorganization, and a week before Intel opens its annual Intel Developer Forum Sept. 22 to 24 in San Francisco.