Intel, AMD improve share

Intel gained momentum in the first quarter of 2008, but rival AMD continued to increase marketshare year-over-year, figures from iSuppli show. Intel gained 1.2 percent to reach 79.7 percent of global microprocessor revenue in the first quarter, but was down 0.7 percent from the first quarter of 2007. AMD lost share in between Q4 2007 and Q1 2008, moving from 14.1 percent to 13 percent, but this was still a 2.2 percent increase from the Q1 2007 period.

"Intel was the short-term winner in the first-quarter microprocessor market," says Matthew Wilkins, iSuppli's principal analyst for computer platforms. "But over the previous 12-month period, the trend is reversed, with AMD growing its share." Close to half of AMD’s long-term growth came at Intel's expense, the firm notes. The remainder came from the marketshare of smaller suppliers.

Intel and AMD combined to take 92.7 percent of the global market, stealing another 1.4 percent from smaller suppliers compared to Q1 2007. Intel looks to increase its share with the recent announcement of its Centrino 2 and 4-series chipsets, and AMD is countering with updated Phenom X4 and Opteron processors in the pipeline.

First-quarter results were positive for the PC market. Global PC unit shipments rose to 69.9 million units in the first quarter, up 12.1 percent from 62.4 million in the first quarter of 2007. Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc. retained the top-three rankings. HP boosted first-quarter global PC shipments by 23 percent over the same quarter in 2007, to reach 13.2 million units. Dell in the first quarter of 2008 expanded its market share position by .5 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, at 15.4 percent, with shipments of 10.8 million units.

Notebook shipments in the first quarter were stronger, with growth of more than 30 percent compared to the first quarter of 2007. In contrast, desktop PC shipments in the first quarter were essentially flat compared to 2007.

By Electronista Staff