Intel had fair results that showed a dampened PC environment. Its revenue was flat from year to year, at $12.9 billion. Intel hadn’t divulged its exact PC Client group revenue in 2011 results, but it noted that the mostly desktop- and notebook-focused group’s revenue was down seven percent from this past fall, to $8.5 billion.
The group saw the biggest loss from a monetary perspective, but was joined by overall sequential drops in the Data Center Group (10 percent, to $2.5 billion) and its other architecture group’s slight two-point drop to $1.1 billion.
Intel noted that it didn’t have the advantage of an extra calendar week in the quarter like it did in 2012, but the results saw Intel end a string of record quarters and reflected a muted PC environment. PC sales were slow as a whole in the winter, with rapid growth from Apple, ASUS, and Lenovo offset by declining companies like Acer and Dell. Tablets like the iPad have been partly credited with such slowdowns, along with persistent economic trouble.
Outlook for the spring was better, as Intel saw its revenue going back up to $13.6 billion. Several events were converging that would fuel a rapid recovery. The imminent Ivy Bridge launch could see many PC builders improve their sales. Intel is similarly due to see the first Atom-based phones from Orange and Xolo arrive and see years of mobile development pay off.
