More personal computer-makers are turning to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. products to fill a gap created by Intel Corp.'s PC chip shortage, analyst firm IDC said April 10.

PC-makers have been scrambling to acquire parts, especially for low-end PCs, since Intel in September 2018 said it would give higher priority to manufacturing high-margin server chips over low-margin laptop and desktop chips amid efforts to resolve ongoing manufacturing issues.

AMD microchip Source: Advanced Micro Devices

Although Intel is still by far the dominant chip supplier in PCs and servers, AMD is gaining. Intel's market share for the fourth quarter of 2018 was 87.6%, and AMD's market share was 12.3%, growing from 7.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to numbers from technology research firm Mercury Research.

"More PC brands turned to AMD chips," IDC said in a statement. Specifically, manufacturers are adopting AMD's chips in products including Chromebooks, which are laptops with Google LLC's Chrome operating system. AMD in January introduced new chips for Chromebooks, a market traditionally dominated by Intel.

Intel's new CEO, Robert Swan, has said that one of his top priorities was to fix the chip shortage issue by the middle of this year.

AMD's emergence as a strong alternative chip supplier for low-end PCs has helped reverse some of the damage that Intel's PC chip shortage did on lackluster worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2018, IDC said.

PC shipments in the first quarter of 2019 totaled 58.5 million units, declining by 3%, a result that was better than expected, IDC said.

"Although the shortage of Intel processors, mostly at the lower end, remained a factor in seeing a contraction in 1Q19, the market performed better than expected with most regions exceeding forecast," IDC said in the statement.

Shipments were boosted by those upgrading to new PCs with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 10. Desktops shipments also were strong in the quarter.

HP Inc. was the top PC company, with worldwide shipments of 13.58 million units, declining by 0.8%. Lenovo Group Ltd. was a close second with 13.43 million units shipped, growing by 1.8%. Dell Technologies Inc. was third, with unit shipments growing 1.9% to 10.38 million units. Apple Inc. was in fourth place, with shipments declining 0.5% to 4.06 million units. Rounding out the top 5 was Acer, whose shipments declined by 13.3% to reach 3.59 million units.