Sharing with the market
Chip maker AMD released a press release this morning, announcing it was now "Number 1" in the market for discrete mobile graphics. However, one or two mysteries still surround the announcement.
The claim is based on data from graphics market researcher Jon Peddie Research (JPR) - specifically the Market Watch report entitled "First Quarter, 2009 - Graphics Semiconductor shipments and market activity." AMD claims this report contains data covering the first half of this year and refers to it as "the latest industry data". However, we reported on JPR's Q2 data nearly a month ago.
Perhaps these minor inconsistencies are the reason for the release having apparently been taken down from AMD's press site - we had to go to Yahoo! Finance to see it after our RSS link led to a blank page.
Anyway, back to the data, AMD managed a 36.5% market share gain in the first half of this year and now holds 53 percent of the mobile discrete market, with its only real competitor being NVIDIA, of course.
AMD ascribes this "incredible momentum" primarily to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series, with its DirectX 10.1 support, improved retail presence and over 200 notebook design wins.
"As consumers increasingly demand greater visual computing capabilities in their notebooks, the market for discrete graphics is only expected to grow," said the eponymous Peddie. "The increase in volume in the second quarter of this year, and in AMD's mobile discrete market share, is a testament to consumers' appetite for visual computing, and manufacturers' readiness to satisfy it as we move into what has traditionally been the busiest season of the year."
