Turning the tide
It looks like the Atom effect has, for now, run its course for Intel as iSuppli joins IDC in reporting a significant loss of global processor market share to AMD in the first quarter of this year.
IDC's figures, published a month ago, measured unit volumes and showed a swing of 4.6 percent market share in favour of AMD between Q4 2008 and Q1 2009.
iSuppli measures revenues, and its figures show a 2.5 percent market share decrease for Intel, with AMD picking up 2.3 percent. It must be noted, however, that this just returns things to more or less the same level as a year ago.
Another difference between the two reports is that iSuppli includes RISC and other types of general-purpose devices, whereas IDC focuses on x86 processors.
"AMD increased its allocation of global microprocessor revenue due to strong performances in each area of its microprocessor portfolio, particularly in its Notebook products," said Matthew Wilkins, iSuppli principal analyst.
"This was an impressive feat given the economic downturn and the weakness in the PC and server markets, which caused global microprocessor revenue in the first quarter to decline by 20.6 percent to $6.9 billion, down from $8.6 billion during the same period in 2008."
iSuppli is forecasting full year revenue of $28.6 billion for the global microprocessor business down 15.8 percent from $34 billion in 2008.
