AMD has increased its market share to almost 15 per cent compared to just over 10 per cent last year.

Figures from Context Research show 14.8 per cent of desktop computers sold through dealers in the third quarter of 2005 were powered by AMD chips. That compares to AMD's market share of just 10.5 per cent in the same period last year.

The alternative chip provider is doing particularly well in selling PCs to home users through the multiple retail channel - nearly one in five PCs sold through retail in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK contained AMD chips.

But it is also gaining ground among small and medium business users: AMD machines made up 8.8 per cent in September 2004 to 15.1 per cent in September this year.

Enterprise customers are also being tempted away from their usual loyalty to Intel. AMD increased its share of business to resellers specialising in larger customers to 8.6 per cent from just 3 per cent in September 2004. Sales of AMD's Opteron chip for servers have also grown - its share of channel sales is up to 4.6 per cent from just 1 per cent last year.

Context Research reveals that AMD is also increasing its share of sales by brand vendors - 19.5 per cent of HP's PC sales had AMD inside, up from 13.6 per cent in September 2004. 23 per cent of Acer machines sold in September 2005 had an AMD chip.

AMD will also be celebrating today's news that it outsold Intel through retail in the US. According to figures from Current Analysis AMD chips powered 49.8 per cent of PCs sold in October compared to 48.5 per cent powered by Intel. ®

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