In its report, IDC revealed that while worldwide PC processor unit shipments declined 17 percent quarter over quarter and 11.4 percent year over year, Intel has managed to avoid the downfall, and to actually help the overall market performance, which otherwise would have seen declines of 21.7 percent quarter over quarter and 21.6 percent year over year.

 

IDC also revealed that the market revenue declined 18 percent quarter over quarter and 22.2 percent year over year, to $6.78 billion. Overall, in 2008 the total PC processor unit shipments grew 10 percent, while revenue grew 0.9 percent.

 

In the fourth quarter of 2008, Intel has managed to keep a good distance from AMD, with 81.9 percent unit market share, a gain of 1.1 percent. Furthermore, it strengthened with an additional 1.7 percent share in the mobile PC processor unit, 2.5 percent in the PC server/workstation processor segment, and a 0.4 percent gain in the desktop processor segment.

 

AMD on the other hand lost 0.9 percent in Q4 in the unit market share, 1.2 percent in the mobile PC processor segment, 2.5 percent in the PC server/workstation processor segment, and 0.4 percent in the desktop PC processor segment.

 

Overall, in 2008, AMD earned 19.2 percent unit market share, a 3.1 percent loss, while Intel reached 80.3 percent, a 2.9 percent gain. Intel was also leader in the mobile PC processor segment, with gains of 4.8 percent in 2008, while AMD finished second, after losing 5.3 percent.

 

The decline of the PC processor market in 4Q08 was due to a precipitous drop in end system demand that quickly moved up the PC supply chain through OEMs and contract manufacturers to the processor vendors, IDC wrote. The expectations for the first two quarters of 2009 are not high either, with demand still weak and shipments likely to continue decline.