Could the glory days for AMD be just around the corner? The wannabe competitor in the microprocessor market grew its Australian marketshare by 5 per cent last month.

According to soon-to-be-released IDC data, AMD processors achieved an 18 per cent share of the local market for desktops and notebooks in the third Quarter 2005. These results don’t include servers — a market where AMD traditionally does well.

Michael Sager, Senior Analyst PC Hardware at IDC Australia was surprised at how far AMD had managed to grow its marketshare in just one quarter. Part of this growth has been as the result of strong sales in the sub-$1000 notebook market where AMD chips predominate explained Sager, but he also notes that AMD recently outsold Intel in Microsoft Media Center PCs sold into the North American market.

It’s been a great run for AMD with the chip company outstripping Intel in US retail sales for the first time in September then following it up with an even better result in October. According to research firm Current Analysis AMD’s share of unit sales in the U.S retail desktop space increased from 52.0 percent in September to 67.7 percent in October with retail notebook shares increasing from 26.2 percent in September to 31.5 percent in October.

“Continuing to hold this lead in the holiday season would be a colossal win for the company,” a Current Analysis spokesperson said at the time pointing out that stronger sales may not necessarily mean a better bottom line as revenue shares in the US retail market for October showed AMD earned 40.1 per cent compared to Intel’s 57.6 per cent thanks to a higher unit price.