Intel chip market domination continues as notebook sales surge

Consumer notebook sales underpin Intel/AMD revenue market share

Processor price war appears to have subsided for the moment

Intel took 79.7 per cent of world CPU revenues in the first quarter of 2008, down 0.7 percentage points from its 2007 first-quarter revenues market share, according to a report from market researcher iSuppli.

The latest figures for Intel were down one per cent on the processor revenues achieved in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Compared with the preceding quarter (fourth quarter 2007) AMD’s first-quarter market share by revenue dipped from just over 14 per cent down to 13 per cent, but was up 2.2 per cent year on year, indicating the chip maker is steadily growing sales.

Both first-quarter sets of revenues for 2008 were primarily due to notebook CPUs, sales of which grew 30 per cent compared with the fourth quarter of 2007.

Prices remained stable, said iSuppli, indicating that the ongoing price war between Intel and AMD has subsided for the moment. AMD released its Puma platform for use in consumer notebooks last month, with Intel set to unveil its rival Centrino 2 platform later this month.