ATI Technologies lost ground in every major graphics product category during the third quarter, and its acquisition by Advanced Micro Devices is likely to blame, according to Jon Peddie Research.
The purchase put ATI directly in competition with one of its major partners, Intel, analysts say, which is the main reason ATI"s market share dropped. For the past few years, ATI has supplied the market with integrated graphics chip sets compatible with Intel microprocessors, but the purchase by AMD has slowed that gravy train. Although ATI can still make the chip sets, component makers in Taiwan say it hasn"t been selling as many as before.
Jon Peddie Research figures bear out the difference. ATI"s PC graphics market share slumped by 5 percentage points in the third quarter to 23 percent, from a 28 percent share in the second quarter of this year. Although ATI retained its hold on second place worldwide, it"s a steep drop.
ATI rivals Nvidia, Via Technologies, and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) all gained share during the three month period, while graphics leader Intel maintained its market share.