In case you have been following the netbook market for a while, you have probably realized that the majority of units on the market take advantage of Intel processors. AMD does make decent processors, but the company was not too sure about the netbook market just about a year ago. That is about to change as AMD processors are expected to grace many netbooks in 2011 and beyond. AMD may not have the “fastest” processors, but its products do have certain advantages over Intel ones. Besides, they are often cheaper, giving consumers more bang for their buck.

We have known for quite some time that AMD Ontario chips will start shipping by the end of 2010. That would mean the earliest we can get our hands on netbooks using those chips will be in 2011. The CES event in 2011 will surely include a few of these AMD netbooks. According to DigiTimes, these chips seem to be in demand already:

Acer, Asustek Computer and Hewlett-Packard (HP) all plan to use AMD’s Ontario APUs (CPUs that feature an integrated GPU) for their new netbook and ultra-thin notebooks…low power consumption, heat generation and price, plus strong CPU and graphics performance has already attracted several notebook players to place orders.

There is no question that Intel is the market leader in this space. While AMD may not start dominating it, it can make a splash in the netbook and slim laptop markets. Can these chips deliver an impressive battery life to netbooks? We will have to wait to find out.