Intel rivals tempt US firms

Over a third of US businesses are considering buying non-Intel based PCs, according to a ZD Market Intelligence survey of over 2,500 US firms. Instead, firms are looking at similar machines which use processors from AMD or Cyrix.

Matt Sargent, an analyst at the market research firm, said: "Traditional thought had it that the business market would remain loyal to Intel. However, our research indicates this is not the case."

In the US, AMD and Cyrix already command around 60 per cent of the sub-$1,000 PC market, and the companies have had some success targeting the low end of the market in Europe.

Michelle Horner, marketing manager at Elonex, which makes PCs based on Intel and AMD chips, said: "We have one customer in Paris which principally chooses AMD on price. But there are benchmarks that show some AMD processors beat Intel on performance."