Intel Regains Market Share from AMD as Market Shifts to Hybrid Microprocessors

From X-bit Labs: Pessimistic projections draw declines on the market of processors in the third quarter of 2011 due to slow demand for PCs in well-developed countries. The expectations proved to be incorrect as the market was up both sequentially and annually both in terms of volume and revenue. As the industry shifts towards microprocessors with integrated graphics cores, Intel manages to grab the market away from AMD mainly due to production problems of the latter.

Worldwide PC microprocessor revenues in the third calendar quarter of 2011 (Q3 2011) rose to $10.7 billion, up 12.2% compared to Q2 2011 and up 16.1% compared to Q3 2010, according to the latest PC microprocessor market share study from International Data Corporation (IDC). On a unit basis, the PC microprocessor market rose 6.7% compared to Q2 2011 and rose 5.2% compared to Q3 2010.

"The average selling price (ASP) that OEMs pay for PC microprocessors rose more than 5% in Q3 2011 and it was the eighth quarter in a row that ASPs rose," said Shane Rau, director of semiconductors: personal computing research at IDC.

IDC's tracking of AMD's Fusion and of Intel's Core i-series "Sandy Bridge" microprocessors indicates that chips with integrated graphics cores (or accelerated processing units [APUs] in AMD's classification) rose to 73% of total PC processor unit volume in Q3 2011.

"Clearly, Intel's Sandy Bridge and AMD's Fusion microprocessors with integrated graphic processors are rising in each company's product stack and driving the price increase. At the same time, low-end processors, notably Intel's Atom processors, are declining as a percentage of the unit mix," added Mr. Rau.

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