A recent market research conducted by the firm IDC reached the conclusion that the shipments of microprocessors used in personal computers had an excelent third quarter, reaching record levels.

The shipments were up by 14 percent compared to the second quarter and also up 15.8 percent year over year. Intel’s new Atom processor was a massive success, boosting the quarter’s growth by 5.7 percent and 7 percent year after year. Intel was undoubtly the world's leading chip supplier in the third quarter, with its 80.8 percent market share, that represents a 1.1 percent year-over-year increase. The company is followed by AMD, which dropped 1.2 percent to 18.5 percent.

Intel hit the jack-pot with its low-cost Atom processor, totaling shipments of about 5 million units in the third quarter. The Atom chips are used on netbooks, which are low-cost laptops developed to run basic applications and ensure a fair Web surfing experience and e-mail access.

IDC also addressed the future of the processor market, requesting a lot of attention for this quarter and all of next year, writing that “the worldwide demand environment looks weak, and both Intel and AMD indicated an uncertain outlook for the market. As a result, IDC is conservative about 2009 and will be lowering its upcoming unit forecast for the year.”

Still, there is a strong possibility that the massive shipments trend for Intel might continue because the netbooks represent a very attractive and affordable offer for many users looking to gain access to a computer’s basics, for learning its functions or for the governments in many developing countries.