AMD's sales revenue last year was only Intel 1/7 claiming to give up the battle

In recent years, AMD’s old rival, Intel, has been subject to a series of anti-monopoly regulatory lawsuits. AMD hopes to take the opportunity to gain a larger share of profits in the PC chip market, but it has not done so.

Intel's leading position in the PC market continues to expand, and AMD is struggling to get rid of losses. To this end, AMD replaced the CEO and recently announced that it will lay off staff.

AMD has been taking root in Silicon Valley for more than 40 years and is considering adopting new strategies. The fierce battle with Intel has always been one of the most closely watched issues in the industry. Some experts believe that AMD's new strategy may significantly change the long-term battle between Intel and Intel.

AMD spokesman Mike Silverman said: "We are at a turning point. We have to give up the old thinking of 'AMD vs. Intel' because it will never be the case in the future."

AMD has not identified its plans, but it is widely expected that the company will focus on smart phones and tablet computers. These markets are monopolized by other companies, and even Intel’s old rival, Intel, is trying to squeeze it. It is possible that the two will wage new battles.

Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research, a US market research company, believes that AMD must make changes to keep up with consumers' "flavors." "Now the world is undergoing a major restructuring, and all companies are responding to the new situation."

AMD was founded in 1969. Intel was founded one year earlier than AMD. The two companies have struggled with patents and other issues since the early 1980s. At that time, IBM selected Intel's x86 microprocessor in the PC and used AMD as a backup chip supplier.

Later, AMD developed x86 products on its own, and accused Intel of using threats and other improper means to prevent computer vendors from using AMD's processors. The battle between the two was upgraded.

In 2005, AMD filed a broad antitrust suit against Intel. In the following years, Japan, South Korea, New York, the United States Federal Trade Commission and Europe also filed similar lawsuits against Intel. The European Union issued a 1.45 billion US dollar fine for Intel.

Intel has repeatedly denied that it has committed misconduct and is currently appealing an EU fine. However, in 2009, Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion, and in 2010 it reached a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, promising to change some of its practices. The lawsuit in New York State is still pending.

AMD executives had hoped that the above legal actions would help them gain a larger share in the PC microprocessor market. Unfortunately, this was counterproductive. US market research firm IDC data shows that in 2006, AMD's market share was 23%, while Intel accounted for 75%. Since then, AMD's share has dropped to about 19%, while Intel's growth has increased to 80%.

AMD bought a graphic chip maker and had a heavy debt of $5.6 billion. In 2009, AMD sought to cut costs by splitting its manufacturing operations into its joint venture entrepreneur GlobalFoundries. However, AMD was already in a long-term financial loss and its vision was poor on Wall Street.

Since then, AMD's revenue has improved and its chip quality has also won praise from users. In spite of this, the industry criticizes AMD for its inferior technology to Intel and has relied too much on the PC business whose growth has slowed down.

According to reports, the reason behind AMD’s dismissal of CEO Dirk Meyer in January of this year was that the company failed to break into the smart phone and tablet computer chip market. Mayal joined AMD in 2008. In August of this year, Lenovo's former CEO Rory Read took over as CEO of AMD.

At the same time, AMD’s bad luck continues. Due to defective AMD's products at a GlobalFoundries plant in Germany, leading to AMD's top-level chip sales decline, in September this year, AMD lowered its revenue and profit expectations. Earlier this month, AMD announced that it will lay off 1400 people, which account for about 12% of its workforce.

In contrast, Intel's business is booming. Last year, Intel’s sales revenue was nearly US$44 billion, and AMD was US$6.5 billion.

Some analysts believe that AMD may counterattack by adopting chip designs developed by AMD and Intel’s former common rival, Britain’s ARM. ARM currently dominates the smart phone and tablet computer chip market.

Some experts predict that AMD may manufacture chips based on x86 and ARM designs. If AMD fully adopts ARM's design, it will essentially isolate Intel in the x86 business.

AMD has pledged to elaborate its new strategy in February next year, but so far it has revealed that it will seek to find "growth opportunities" in low-energy-consuming equipment, emerging markets, and Internet businesses.

Tim Bajarin, an analyst with CreativeStrategies, said that whatever path AMD chooses, it is better to adopt a different approach than in the past because "the microprocessor market in the post-PC era has indeed changed."