Intel and AMD have been the top two processor manufacturers for quite some time but, according to new research from IC Insights, this has changed. While Intel retained its position as the top manufacturer of processors in the world in 2012, AMD fell from second to fourth place as Qualcomm and Samsung surged ahead to fill the second and third-place spots, respectively.
This changing of the guard had to do with AMD's processor sales slipping 21 percent to $3.605 billion, combined with massive growth from both Qualcomm, which grew 28 percent to reach $5.3 billion, and Samsung, which grew an impressive 78 percent to achieve $4.7 billion in processor revenue. According to IC Insights, 83 percent of Samsung's processor revenue can be attributed to the fact that the company's processors appear in various Apple mobile devices.
In terms of market share, Qualcomm now sits at 9.4 percent, Samsung at 8.2 percent and AMD at 6.4 percent. Meanwhile, Intel continued its market supremacy in 2012, although it did slip one percentage point to 65.3 percent.
The declines seen by Intel and AMD are attributed to dropping demand for legacy PCs. Intel has been working toward releasing a viable mobile processor for some time, but its first batch of mobile processors were released in only a handful of handsets. Its upcoming "Silvermont" mobile microprocessors are expected to have a bigger impact on the mobile market as they promise extremely low power draw — about one-fifth of its current mobile chips — with processing capabilities meeting or exceeding current ARM-based offerings.
As for AMD, the company's graphics division continues to do well and its APUs saw a shipment increase of 30 percent in the first quarter over the last quarter of 2012. Meanwhile, an AMD chip will power Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 console.
Of course, AMD also sees that mobile is the future for computing and so it plans to include ARM processors in its APUs later this year, according to The Verge.
Edited by
Alisen Downey 
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