Analyst: Intel In "Driver's Seat"

An analyst firm predicted Tuesday that Intel will maintain its commanding lead in the desktop PC microprocessor market at the end of 2002, while 2003 will see processor speeds begin to flatten out.

In-Stat/MDR (MicroDesign Resources), which will present its Microprocessor Forum in San Jose next week, said Tuesday that it estimates that Intel will hold an 81 percent market share at the end of 2002. In the first half of 2002, Intel's Pentium 4 left AMD's Athlon XP "in the dust" on clock speed, and it will continue to do so as long as Intel is able to convince end users they need a processor that runs at multiple-gigahertz speeds, MDR said.

MDR also predicted that the Athlon XP will be pushed into a competition with Intel's Celeron processor, rather than the Pentium 4.

More at ExtremeTech