Chip decline eases; AMD gains on Intel
The decline in PC chip shipments may be slowing but Netbook processor deliveries were off 33 percent, while Advanced Micro Devices gained on Intel, IDC said.
In the first calendar quarter of 2009, worldwide PC microprocessor shipments fell 10.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with a 17 percent decline from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, according to IDC.
AMD gained on Intel in the first quarter. Intel garnered a 77.3 percent unit market share, a loss of 4.7 percent, while AMD had a 22.3 percent share, a gain of 4.6 percent. AMD gained in the mobile and desktop PC markets, IDC said.
Overall, shipments were down, though the rate of decline may be slowing. "The PC processor market continued to reflect significant decline in end demand for most of 1Q09," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. "However, some inventory replenishment by (PC makers) at the end of the quarter helped to slow the decline and bring the quarter in at a level only slightly worse than typical seasonal decline."
IDC noted that demand from PC suppliers picked up towards the end of the quarter but the market researcher cautioned that the demand was due to PC manufacturers "replenishing their inventories rather than reflecting a return of solid end demand and return to market normalcy."
Unit shipments dropped 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009.
Intel's shipments of Atom processors for Netbooks plummeted 33 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the fourth quarter, indicating that Netbook suppliers held significant inventory of Atom processors coming into the new year, according to IDC.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
my guess it will do pretty damn well. though honestly not sure how much!
their Desktop Processors are decent
but their Mobile processors are horrible
even Die hard fanboys buy Intel Powered Laptops !
- by rp69 May 12, 2009 7:36 AM PDT
- It doesn't make much sense, and they way this article is spun it implies that AMD gained ground on the Atom processor which I believe was just implied as they were only comparing Intel volume from one quarter to another which doesn't necessarily reflect a gain in AMD sales in that arena. No argument with seven7dust the laptop/netbook market is Intel's at this point and AMD (while I am a big fan) has no competitive products in that space. Given the pricing of the Phenom II to the i7 I would say that people were bargain shopping for those processors which would make more sense to why there is gain in the AMD side as it notes that it made gains in the Mobile & Desktop side ... my guess it was more desktop than mobile.
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