AMD's share of the US retail desktop PC market jumped to a massive 81.5 per cent during the first two months of the year, pushing Intel's share of the market to just 18.5 per cent, researcher NPD Techworld has revealed. Intel's share of the US retail notebook fell to 63 per cent in the same period.

Publication of the figures, in a CNet report, follows Intel's warning last week that its Q1 FY2006 sales will be lower than expected thanks do lower-than-anticipated demand and what the chip giant said was a "slight" market-share decline.

According to NPD, the US retail market accounts for nine per cent of the global PC business. Intel's slide comes despite the launch this year of its Viiv media centre PC platform and 65nm dual-core desktop processors. In the notebook arena, Intel launched its Centrino Duo platform backed by its first dual-core notebook CPU, the Core Duo chip.

NPD described PC sales growth as "OK" for the first six to eight weeks of the year, with double-digit growth in the notebook arena and single-digit desktop sales growth. Success appears to be founded on price: AMD-based desktops are typically $200 cheaper than Intel-based machines. In the notebook space, Intel had the average-price edge - $957 to AMD's $1016 - though the difference is less marked. ®

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