Intel Expands CPU Market Share in Q3 to 84 Percent

Intel was able to increase its lead microprocessor sales over AMD in the third quarter of 2011

According to an estimate by market research firm IHS, Intel processors accounted for 83.7 percent of all processors revenues in Q3, up from 82.5 percent in the second quarter and up from 80.9 percent in Q3 of 2010. AMD slipped from 10.5 percent in Q2 and 11.5 percent in Q3 2010 to 10.2 percent in the most recent quarter.

IHS said that the third quarter brought good and bad news for Intel:

“The boom in media tablet sales has packed both upsides and downsides for Intel—hurting its business in netbook microprocessors - but boosting its sales of chips used in data centers to support cloud computing,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research at IHS. “Because of its broad product line that addresses both the consumer and business side of the microprocessor business, Intel in the third quarter managed to outperform the overall market. Even with the company warning that its fourth-quarter revenue will fall short of expectations, the company still is expected to expand its lead in the global semiconductor market based on its strong performance in the third quarter and the rest of the year.”

It is particularly interesting that Intel has managed to pull itself out of the negative impact of the decline of the netbook market, which is a segment that it fueled with its Atom processors. IHS said that global netbook shipments may drop to 21.4 million units in 2011, down a staggering 33.5 percent from 32 million in 2010. Shipments are expected to fall to 13.4 million units in 2015.