Several analysts said in recently released notes that Advanced Micro Devices was losing market share to Intel Corp. in desktop and server markets due to product lineup that cannot compete against rival’s family. One of the factors that does not allow the world’s second largest x86 chip producer to fight back the share is the lack of speedy microprocessors for demanding customers.

J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Danely recently warned that Advanced Micro Devices was likely to report Q1 revenues below company guidance calling for a “seasonal” March quarter, reports Barron’s web-site. Mr. Danely said AMD was losing market share to Intel in Q1 2008 and that Intel was benefiting from “superior product offerings” and AMD’s lack of high-end server processors. Another analyst – Uche Orji from UBS – also believes that AMD was losing market share to its larger rival.

“AMD is losing more processor market share to Intel than we had expected, primarily from lower estimates on desktops and servers,” Mr. Orji said.

On an overall unit basis, Intel had 76.7% market share, a gain of 0.4% in Q4 2007, according to IDC. AMD commanded 23.1% of shipments, a loss of 0.4%. These shares are pretty  identical to the shares of Q2 2007, however, in Q1 market share of Advanced Micro Devices may collapse since Intel introduced a family of very competitive microprocessors made using 45nm process technology, whereas AMD failed to deliver higher-end AMD Phenom microprocessors on time and in mass quantities.

There are additional problems that AMD is facing in addition to market share loss. The J.P. Morgan analyst also warned that AMD could be hurt by microprocessor inventory in the channel, noting that microprocessor unit shipments have been well above long trend for the past two quarters. Finally, Mr. Danely said that AMD’s current lineup of central processing units would not allow the firm to report high average selling prices, which means generally lower profits.

“We believe it will be difficult for AMD to make money unless it drastically cuts back production and focuses on execution,” Mr. Danely said.

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