IBM CPU sales rocket…

...but fails to dent Intel, AMD market shares

Intel took a whopping 80 per cent of the world microprocessor market last year, according to figures released by market watcher IC Insights.

But while the chip giant unsurprisingly maintained its dominance of the market, IBM demonstrated the fastest growth, growing 160 per cent in 2003.

Big Blue's 2003 sales hit $520m, largely thanks to its PowerPC 970 supply deal with Apple, which calls the chip the G5. The G5 helped IBM grab two per cent of the processor market.

Despite spectacular growth, IBM sales were vastly overshadowed by Intel, which sold $21.85bn worth of processors last year, up 15 per cent on 2002's total.

AMD also saw sales rise 15 per cent year on year, to $1.96bn, taking second place, with a seven per cent market share.

Motorola, which also supplies Apple, mainly with its G4-class MPC7455 and MPC7447, came in at number three, just ahead of IBM. Its sales grew a mere four per cent, to $840m, enough to yield three per cent of the market. Other processor vendors, such as Sun, Samsung and Hitachi, together took eight per cent of the market. ®

2003 World Processor Sales
Rank	Company	2003 sales ($m)	2002 sales ($m)	Growth	2003 market share
1	Intel	21,850	19,000	15%	80%
2	AMD	1960	1705	15%	7%
3	Motorola	840	809	4%	4%
4	IBM	520	200	160%	2%
Source: IC Insights