It's no secret that AMD has benefited from Intel's ongoing processor shortage. The company's silicon has found its way into Chromebooks and other laptops and started to appeal more to enthusiasts over the last year. Numbers around AMD's increasing popularity have been quantified by market analyst Context, and the numbers might be higher than you'd think.
As reported by The Independent today, AMD CPUS were found in 7% of the 5.07 million systems that were shipped to European retailers and resellers in 2018. Those numbers have risen, with AMD's chips now being found in 12% of laptops and desktops, even as the total number of shipments rose to 5.24 million. That means shipments of AMD-powered systems rose from 355,000 units to 629,000 units in a year.
That growth was highest in the retail market, where AMD's share of shipments rose from 11% last year to 18% this year. Shipments of business-targeting PCs featuring AMD processors also jumped from 5% to 8%. It's not like Intel's majority share of the market is in danger--especially where business customers are concerned--but AMD's growth shows that companies are willing to consider other solutions.
Not that Intel's taking all this lying down. Last week, the company sent us the following statement in response to a report on HP and Lenovo bemoaning its CPU shortage:
"We are actively working to address the supply-demand challenge, and we expect supply in the second half will be up compared to the first half. We continue to prioritize available output toward the newest generation Intel Core products that support our customers’ high-growth segments and we plan to further increase our output capacity in 2020."
It's not clear when Intel will have enough CPUs to meet its customers' needs. The company's working to increase production, though, and that could be enough to slow AMD's rise. Manufacturers have made it clear that they want to use Intel's processors, and some have mostly turned to AMD's offerings out of desperation. What happens when they can once again buy as many of Intel's products as they want?