14 DAY TRIAL // Intel and AMD, the largest two x86 processor manufacturers have landed on a more stable market as compared to the first half of 2007. Despite their announced forecasts, both companies had almost identical earnings both in the third and the fourth quarter of the year.
According to market analyst IDC, microprocessor shipments have set new industry records for the second quarter in a row, with an 8.5 percent increase and a revenue of $8.7 billion. Both chip manufacturers are in a strange kind of stasis, with neither of the competitors being able to take a big share of the other's market. According to the IDC reports, the last quarter of 2007 brought Intel a market share of 76.7 percent (0.4 percent more than in the third quarter), while AMD only took 23.1 percent (and lost the 0.4 percent in favor of Intel).
However, AMD's loss was substantially more painful in the mobile sector, where the company had dropped 1.1 percent to 17.8 percent share, while Intel managed to gain AMD's 1.1 percent to 81.9 percent. After Intel having taken small amounts of AMD's market share, the server market proved to favor the latter: according to IDC, Advanced Micro Devices gained 0.6 percent to 14.6 percent while Intel had its shares declining by 0.6 percent to 85.6 percent. The figures in the desktop market remained untouched, with 72.1% for Intel and 27.7% for AMD.
The year 2007 however brought a larger market for both chip manufacturers. Total worldwide PC processor shipments grew 12.6 percent as compared to 2006, with total revenues of more than $30.55 billion (1.7 percent more). "The disparity of unit growth and revenue growth indicates a strong price erosion that occurred early in the year 2007," claimed IDC.
All in all, both chip manufacturers took great advantage of the growing market. Server microprocessor shipments grew 17.0 percent, while notebook processor sales grew 10.3 percent. IDC estimates that the shipments will suffer a sequential decline of between 6 to 7 percent for the first quarter.