Hardware No. 1 News Topic: Driven by desktops, and rivalry between Intel and AMD

 As we approach the half-year mark, we checked the latest 12-month BT Trax stats for news topics. Hardware carries the day as the most read topic, with 21% of all news interest, out-muscling even security. 

What about hardware is so interesting? The biggest news surrounds desktops, followed by servers and storage, naturally. Among the most sizzling desktop stories in the past 12 months was this week's splash about Apple and Intel making nice, read by over half a million in one day. But to put even this remarkable news in perspective, the Apple-Intel story made a much bigger splash than any of the recent “setbacks” for Intel, such as the chip recall and killing plans for the 4 GHz Pentium chip--bad news has a tendency to draw more readership than good.

While Intel is unquestionably the top dog among chip makers, the old dog has had a few bites taken out of its desktop hindquarters in recent months. AMD gained some ground by releasing its dual-core desktop chips, then outperformed Intel’s desktop dual-core chips in early benchmark tests, and last June, made a deal to supply Lenovo with chips--now even more important with the recent IBM-Lenovo deal.

How much more good AMD news can Intel stand? Surely, lots more with an 82.2% market share compared to AMD’s 16.6%. Nevertheless, good news is always good medicine, and we are anxious to see how the Apple-Intel relationship plays out.