PC Market to Defy Predictions: Intel CEO

Further evidence of a rebounding economy is the brightened outlook for the personal computer market, which had been forecasted to significantly decline by industry leaders earlier this year.

 

Intel Corp. CEO Paul Otellini said Tuesday that the global PC market is “pulling out of its slump” and could actually defy industry forecasts by growing this year. In fact, Otellini’s comments at an industry conference in San Francisco were more bullish than many analysts have predicted, the Associated Press reported.

 

In June, IT research firm Gartner (News - Alert) predicted that the fourth quarter of this year will bring the beginning of a rebound that will gain momentum next year. Market research firms IDC and Gartner have both predicted a year-over-year decline in PC shipments in 2009, which would be the first such drop since 2001, the Associated Press reported.

 

Intel (News - Alert) Corp. said the personal-computer market “bottomed out” in the first quarter, suggesting that conditions may be starting to improve for the hard-hit technology sector, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. With a stronger fourth quarter, the industry is on pace to move 274 million PCs worldwide this year, analysts said.

 

Among PC makers, Dell Inc. fell 28 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $15.73, while Hewlett-Packard Co. gained 68 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $47.03, the Associated Press reported.

 

At Tuesday’s conference, Otellini displayed a silicon wafer containing the world’s first working chips built on 22nm process technology, while declaring, “At Intel, Moore’s Law is alive and thriving.”  The 22nm test circuits include both SRAM memory as well as logic circuits to be used in future Intel microprocessors.

 

“We’ve begun production of the world's first 32nm microprocessor, which is also the first high-performance processor to integrate graphics with the CPU,” said Otellini. “At the same time, we’re already moving ahead with development of our 22nm manufacturing technology and have built working chips that will pave the way for production of still more powerful and more capable processors.”

 

Despite posting a 15 percent dip in revenue, Intel reported better-than-expected results in the second-quarter, paving a brighter picture for the PC market. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker, the world’s leader in the segment, posted a $398 million loss, which equates to 7 cents per share for the quarter ended March 28. A year ago, the company posted a profit of about $1.6 billion, or 28 cents per share. Otellini became the Intel’s fifth CEO on May 18, 2005, succeeding Craig R. Barrett.

 

Earlier this month, TMCnet reported that the Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report from DisplaySearch, an NPD Group (News - Alert) Company, said that the total notebook PC market posted strong quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth, particularly driven by the demand for netbooks.

 

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