No. 1 Player in Korean CPU Market

AMD has become the leader in the Korean CPU market. 

AMD has always been the No. 2 player in the CPU market. Yet the company is enjoying a rapid growth in the Korean market, benefiting from a CPU supply cut by Intel, the No. 1 player, since last year. AMD quickly absorbed Korean users based on its price competitiveness.

According to Danawa, an IT product price comparison platform, AMD's domestic market share reached 53.58 percent in August, surpassing Intel's 46.42 percent. AMD had recorded a market share of around 40 percent since early this year. Yet it has outsold Intel in the Korean market since July.

Experts say that there are two reasons for AMD’s good fight. Intel's CPU supply became unstable amid gamers’ preference for high-end games. Demand for AMD CPUs increased as their price competitiveness and good performance won recognition from gamers. AMD recently won contracts one after another in the procurement market due to a shortage of Intel CPU supply.

"In the past, the procurement market followed the wrong practice of specifying Intel products only at every tender announcement. But recently, both Intel and AMD CPUs have been specified in tender announcements," an AMD official said.

Experts expect AMD to make rapid strides in the Korean market for the time being. Intel currently sells 9th-generation processors, but a preference for AMD products in the PC market is on the uptick. It means that it will be difficult for Intel to turn the tide in the Korean CPU market until it releases 10th-generation processors.

"As for large companies’ brand PCs, both consumers and manufacturers tend to prefer Intel CPUs," a computer industry official said. “However, AMD CPUs are growing in popularity because consumers who buy custom-built PCs or PCs of small and medium-sized PC makers are more sensitive to PC prices. So they choose AMD CPUs over Intel CPUs. If Intel introduces a 10-generation processor based on the 10-nm process, it will change the situation of the market but Intel’s schedule is not known at the moment."

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