Intel takes CPU market share from AMD in Q1
Catches chipset bug bullet in teeth
The chip watchers at iSuppli say that Intel continued to gain processor market share even though it was hit by a bug in a chipset used with its "Sandy Bridge" desktop, laptop, and entry server platforms.
According to the latest stats from iSuppli, both x86 and x64 microprocessors as a group continue to take market share away from vendors peddling RISC, Itanium, and CISC processors in the general-purpose microprocessor market for PCs, servers, storage, and networking gear. The global processor market expanded by 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, thanks to growing demand in the wake of the Great Recession, and AMD and Intel together tool down 92.7 per cent of the pie. That is up three-tenths of a point compared to Q1 2010.
Intel was the big winner, however. iSuppli reckons Intel got 82.6 per cent of the revenue pie in the first quarter, a two point gain over the prior year. AMD continued to lose share, falling to 10.1 per cent of microprocessor revenues in the first quarter of 2011, down from 11.8 per cent in the year-ago period.
You would have thought that AMD would have been better able to capitalize on Intel's "Cougar Point" chipset bug, which involved a flaw in the SATA disk controller; but AMD has its own issues, not the least of which being delays in the rollout of key 32 nanometer desktop and laptop processors and not having a CEO.
iSuppli said that Intel's Atom processor shipments rose in the first quarter as they were plunked into netbooks, but that the company would face challenges here as tablet sales continue to grow. What iSuppli needs to do is add in ARM processors for tablets and netbooks to its microprocessor data. The microprocessor market is now larger than x86 and x64 processors plus RISC, Itanium, and a smattering of CISC processors. ®
COMMENTS
wtf?
How is this survey any value if it doesn't include the rapidly growing tablet ARM segment? Or perhaps the survey was commissioned by Intel who desperately want the world to ignore tablets until it can release an ATOM with decent performance that doesn't require a fan blowing out hot air constantly. I say 2013 or so.
