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发帖数: 10738 | 1 Santa Clara chip giant Intel (INTC) reported quarterly sales in line with
analysts' expectation and its earnings per share were slightly better than
anticipated, but the company warned that the soured economy is hampering its
business.
"As we enter the third quarter, our growth will be slower than we
anticipated due to a more challenging macroeconomic environment," said CEO
Paul Otellini in a prepared statement, though he added the company is "well
positioned for this year and beyond."
The company said it made a $2.8 billion second-quarter profit on sales of $
13.5 billion, amounting to earnings of 54 cents per share. Analysts surveyed
by Thomson Reuters on average had predicted it would post quarterly sales
of $13.56 billion, with earnings of 52 cents per share.
Closely watched as a barometer for the health of the chip and computer
industries, Intel has reported a series of record earnings over the past
couple of years, often surprising Wall Street analysts, given the mediocre
performance of some other tech companies.
But the sluggish economy and Intel's heavy reliance on sales of personal
computers, which predominately use its brainy microprocessors, have raised
concerns about its ability to maintain brisk sales.
The
company's first-quarter profit was down 13 percent from a year ago to $2.7
billion, though it's $12.9 billion in sales for the period were about what
analysts had expected. And signs suggest the chip business could be slumping
due to Europe's financial woes and slowed spending in China. Just recently,
Sunnyvale chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices and Applied Materials of Santa
Clara, which sells equipment used to make chips, warned that their sales
will be lower than expected.
In addition, many industry observers believe Intel will face growing
competition from chipmakers using an alternative semiconductor design
licensed from British firm ARM Holdings.
Traditionally more energy-efficient and offering better battery life than
Intel's chips, the ARM variety are used in nearly all smartphones and
tablets, which are selling much faster than PCs and servers, where Intel's
chips dominate.
Intel is pushing to get its chips into phones and tablets, as well as
ultrabooks, a tablet-laptop hybrid. At the same time, however, the ARM camp
is seeking to get into PCs and servers -- aided by Microsoft's recent
decision to let its Windows operating system run for the first time on their
chips.
Analysts expect the collision between these two sides to get noisy in the
next year or two, when Intel's chips become more energy efficient and ARM
companies hope to offer chips as brainy as Intel's.
"In the past, Intel has been fairly dismissive of the ARM threat," Bernstein
Research analyst Stacy Rasgon said in recent note to his clients. But he
added that the competition could force down the price of chips, affecting
Intel's bottom line.
No one suggests Intel won't continue to be a powerhouse and one of its big
pluses is its highly modern manufacturing capabilities, where it has
invested billions of dollars in recent years. And last week, it announced it
was investing up to $4.1 billion more in ASML Holdings, to gain access to
the Dutch company's chip-making tools, a deal that J. P. Morgan analysts
concluded "secures Intel's manufacturing technology lead." |
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