AMD Slips Past Number 10 On Key List

The embattled AMD has certainly lost a lot of blood this year, with only (really) the RV670 GPU and 790FX chipset to show for their efforts. Phenom was a bust, to say the very least, and even the Radeon HD2000 series fell short of expectations, relegated to the bargain bin. The Black Edition CPUs did virtually nothing to help AMD regain its standing with the enthusiast market, either, despite the Black 5000+’s overclocking headroom.

As if AMD’s Year in Review didn’t already look bleak, now there’s more bad news – the lone Intel rival has slipped past the number 10 spot on iSuppli’s ranking of the world’s top ten chipmakers. The impression we’re getting is conflicting, however, since AMD just made its first appearance on the top-ten list of IC Insights, another industry research firm. The key is in the third quarter – the only quarter IC Insights considered for their most recent rankings. And despite dropping off iSuppli’s list, the research firm indicates that they expect AMD’s market share to grow in the fourth quarter – albeit to nowhere near where it was just a year ago. Should AMD fans and investors even hold out hope that the chipmaker will be able to regain its former footing and go toe-to-toe with Intel once more? Stockholders, place bets now!

For the fourth quarter of this year, iSuppli is predicting that Intel will hold onto 78.8% of the market. The analysts also estimate that Intel will bring in $7.24 billion in revenue this quarter, while AMD is expected to bring in $1.3 billion, which is just shy of the company’s $1.35 billion in fourth quarter, 2006, revenue.

Source: PC World