Report: Intel Overcame Sandy Bridge Recall to Extend Lead Over AMD in Q1

Posted 06/29/2011 at 11:15pm | by Pulkit Chandna

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IHS iSuppli on Thursday published a report about the state of the global microprocessor business in the first quarter. For all you sticklers for terseness, the entire report can be summed up in these five words: Intel can do no wrong! It’s not that it never puts a foot wrong, but its stature allows it to get away with it even when it does. During the first quarter, the world’s premier chip maker successfully overcame a massive chipset recall to further extend its lead over rival AMD.

Even though the Cougar Point chipset flaw cost Intel several hundred million dollars, the company was praised by most people for its swift handling of the issue. Perhaps that explains why the recall failed to deter the company from accounting for “82.6 percent of global microprocessor revenue, up 1.6 points of share from the 81 percent it held in the fourth quarter of 2010.” According to the report, it gained 2.0 percentage points compared to the same quarter last year.

AMD’s share of global microprocessor revenue, on the other hand, fell to 10.1 percent from 10.9 percent in the previous quarter. During the same period in 2010, AMD accounted for 11.8 percent of global revenue. The market on the whole grew by around 20 percent during the quarter, as per the report.

“Intel moved quickly to identify and correct the Sandy Bridge chipset issue during the first quarter,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms, for IHS. “The fact that the company achieved a 25 percent increase in revenue in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010 shows that its chipset concern did not really affect the company to a significant degree.”

“This serves as a testament to Intel’s capability to react to a potential crisis with speed and agility. Intel’s handling of the issue on both the public relations and business fronts stands in stark contrast to other recent examples of big companies facing major product quality challenges.”