According to latest market research data from iSuppli, Intel was the king of microprocessor world in 2008 with 13.1 percent market share. Intel has more than double the market share when compared to second place Samsung with 6.5 percent processor market share. The third and fourth place went to Toshiba and Texas Instruments respectively. Intel’s main competitor in CPU market AMD was placed 12th as AMD’s revenue fell 7.8 percent in 2008.

In general companies with mobile phone processor lineup saw a rise in market share, whereas companies focusing mainly of DRAM chips saw a drop in market share. Intel saw a growth in CPU market because of netbook market where their Atom processors were almost unchallenged. But that is going to change as ARM-based platforms are going to enter netbook market in June.

Qualcomm and Freescale are preparing to launch ARM-based netbook platforms at Computex Taipei this year. Many netbook makers like Asustek, Pegatron and Wistron have started working with the ARM-based platform. Pegatron Technology will showcase netbook based on Freescale i.MX51 CPU (ARM Cortex A8), whereas Wistron will show model equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU at Computex Taipei 2009. 

Though ARM-based CPUs are not as powerful as Intel Atom processors, they are much more energy efficient, have 1/10 thermal requirements and are way smaller in overall size. These factors can play in favor of ARM-based netbook platform, which will result in ultra-thin and ultra-light netbooks.