iSuppli attributed Intel's strength in 2008 partly to the success of its Atom chip in the emerging netbook sector. Worldwide unit shipments of netbooks soared by more than 2000 percent in 2008 and are expected to rise by 68.5 percent in 2009, according to iSuppli.

Atom powers the vast majority of netbooks. Priced at less than $50, it is also far less expensive than Intel's high-end microprocessors. Some analysts have questioned whether it cannibalizes other markets for the company.

"Intel's Atom offering for the netbook segment has helped, although the major contribution to the company's share gains has undoubtedly come from the continued strength of the company's microprocessor brands and products in the desktop, notebook and server segments," said Matthew Wilkins, iSuppli principal analyst of compute platforms research, in a statement.

Intel's share of the microprocessor segement grew nearly 1 percentage point from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2008, iSuppli said. The company's fourth quarter share of the microprocessor market was up 3.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007, the firm said.

For the full-year of 2008, Intel grew its market share by 1.6 percentage points at the expense of smaller competitors, iSuppli said.

Intel's main microprocessor rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., lost share on both a year-over-year and sequential basis in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to iSuppli. AMD accounted for 10.6 percent of worldwide microprocessor revenue, a decrease of 3.5 percent from the 14.1 percent it held in the fourth quarter of 2007, the firm said.

By: DocMemory
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