Sunnyvale (CA) - AMD’s aggressive strategy to regain share in the CPU market has shown some effect in the fourth quarter of last year: iSuppli believes the manufacturer has posted a slight gain in Q4. However, the firm’s success may be limited as Intel was also able to increase its share.

iSuppli estimates that AMD stood at a market share of 14.2% (based on CPU revenues) at the end of 2007, compared to 13.9% three months earlier. Intel climbed 0.1 points from 78.8% to 78.9% in the same time frame, while "other" CPU manufacturers dropped 0.4 points from 7.3% to 6.9%. iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins told TG Daily that AMD and Intel are not just impacting each other, but are also "eating up" the remaining market share of other manufacturers.

2007 was a painful year for AMD. According to the market research firm, AMD’s CPU revenue share declined from an average of 16.1% in 2006 to an average of 13.2% in 2007. Intel was able to gain 4.2 points in the same time frame, jumping from 74.8% to 79.2%.

Wilkins noted that an on-time launch the Barcelona processor would have been very important for AMD. "The delay in the introduction of AMD’s Barcelona native quad-core microprocessors was a factor in the company’s performance for the year. Barcelona represents a clear area of competitive advantage for AMD compared to Intel, which still does not have a native quad-core microprocessor. However, the Barcelona delay has reduced the timeframe during which AMD can press that advantage."

iSuppli said that it does not publish the unit market share of CPUs and does not break out CPU markets by server, desktop and mobile.

Source : Tom's Hardware