As PC sales slide, Intel admits its a “tough” market.
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Intel’s third quarter results paint a dull picture of the PC world, with revenue, operating income and gross margin all showing zero growth, and are identical to Q2 figures.
Intel’s PC Client Group revenue fell 8% compared to Q3 ’11 to $8.6 billion.
Company shares closed at $22.35, but fell 3.4% to $21.59 in after hours trading.
“Our third-quarter results reflected a continuing tough economic environment,” said Paul Otellini, Intel CEO.
However, despite the pervasive gloom Otellini was “pleased” with progress on Ultrabooks, the new ultra thin notebook category it masterminded last year, and alluded to the Intel based tabs coming this quarter, including Microsoft’s Surface.
“As we look to the fourth quarter, we’re pleased with the continued progress in Ultrabooks and phones and excited about the range of Intel-based tablets coming to market.”
“The world of computing is in the midst of a period of breakthrough innovation and creativity.”
However, despite the dull air in PC market, Intel is still spending $4.5 billion Research & Development in Q4, just slightly below last quarter.
The chip giant is predicting a slight rise in Q4 revenue to $13.6 bn, plus or minus $500 million.
Intel Data Center revenue was down 5% to $2.7 bn, although up 6% year-over-year.
Its Q3 Gross margin of 63.3 percent was 1.3% above the the company’s expectation of 62%.
The company generated approximately $5.1 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion.
Earnings per share was also up 7.4% to $0.58 from $0.54.
