IDC: Intel Increases Lead in Microprocessor Market

Posted 11/03/2011 at 9:39am | by Paul Lilly

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The worldwide PC microprocessor market grew its revenues 12.2 percent to $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2011, and was up 16.1 percent compared to one year prior, according to the latest figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC). The jump in revenue is partially the result of a rise in the average selling price (ASP) OEMs fork over for computer chips.

"The average selling price (ASP) that OEMs pay for PC microprocessors rose more than 5% in 3Q11," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC, "and it was the eighth quarter in a row that ASPs rose. Clearly, Intel's Sandy Bridge and AMD's Fusion microprocessors with integrated graphic processors are rising in each company's product stack and driving the price increase. At the same time, low-end processors, notably Intel's Atom processors, are declining as a percentage of the unit mix."

Microprocessors with integrated graphics skyrocketed to 73 percent of total PC processor unit volume in the third quarter, which probably says more about Sandy Bridge than it does Fusion. As a whole, Intel increased its overall market share to 80.2 percent, just shy of a 1 percent gain compared to 2Q11. That was mostly at the expense of AMD, which gave up 0.7 percent of the market and now accounts for 19.7 percent of all PC microprocessors.