Intel Clouded by Back-To-School Fears
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Intel Corp.'s (INTC.O) upcoming mid-quarter report will be closely watched for signs of weak back-to-school computer sales, though recent market share gains in memory chips could help offset any softness in computer microprocessor demand.
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(InfoWorld) - The leading quote from this weekâs news comes from Intel CEO Paul Otellini: "We're doing product refreshes every two years, which is the model we invented and then stopped doing after Pentium 4, shame on us," Otellini said. "We fell off it -- mea culpa, we screwed up -- and now we're back on that pace." Otellini was speaking at a Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, but regardless of the venue, every time a CEO speaks, he or she is using analysts and journalists as a conduit to shareholders. When a CEO takes a podium to apologize to shareholders, it tends to be the board of directorsâ idea. This is an obtuse, though profuse apology. The screwup to which Otellini refers is his decision to clear Intelâs shelves of x86 property and dump it on AMD in one drop so that Intel could end the year with a bang, having had the last volley in the CPU wars. It did that. But one could liken Intelâs strategy in latter 2006 to a massive spread of fireworks thatâs sent up simultaneously. Everybody goes nuts at the spectacle of it, but after that brief rush, all thatâs left is silence and smoke, soon followed by the glow of taillights. As tacky as it is to quote oneself, I put Otelliniâs present bind succinctly in a column I wrote last August: âIntel shot its entire wad on Core microarchitecture. From here, the only place Intel can go is bigger cache, more cores, and faster clocks.â Indeed, that sums up Intelâs plans for 2007, and thereâs no swaggering spin, distraction, or buzzword bending that can make up for the enormous technology gap between Core 2 and AMDâs reengineered Barcelona quad-core Opteron. It isnât likely that Intel can play engineering catch-up, given that Otellini has pink-slipped 10,500 workers. Otellini will have more than empty cupboards and empty desks to apologize for. He set a strategy to bulk up Intelâs manufacturing capacity and to jam up AMD by forcing prices down and leaving AMD unable to meet spiked market demand. Market demand is sagging, and if it returns, AMD has the capacity advantage: It has third-party foundries standing ready to stamp out AMD CPUs if need be. Another example of poor judgment is Otelliniâs fixation on CPUs and chip sets. AMDâs acquisition of ATI put Intelâs rival in the high-margin peripherals business as well as a growing role in high-performance chip sets for Intel desktop and notebook PCs. Intelâs hostile attitude toward chip-set makers drove graphics and chip-set giant Nvidia to make surprisingly close ties with AMD despite its purchase of Nvidiaâs sole competitor. If only it ended there. Recently, Intel informed the Delaware Federal District Court that it cannot produce relevant e-mail messages that were exchanged after the filing date of AMDâs antitrust suit. Intelâs letter to the court blames individual human error while heaping detailed praise on executivesâ document retention plan. Buried in the text is the Nixonian counterpoint, âSome of the tapes appear to have been recycled.â Itâs not that Otellini hasnât done anything right. He did put the brakes on NetBurst. He won an exclusive with Apple and got Sun Microsystems to add Intel to its product line. But in the minus column, Otellini lost the companyâs gold medal exclusive PC maker, Dell, and people will wonder whose inboxes those recycled tapes might have contained. Intelâs CEO should be gilding his parachute. If he lasts out the year, it will be because Intelâs board wisely takes its time to choose a replacement. My litmus test? Find someone who believes that Intelâs yearly sponsorship of the A. M. Turing Award matters more than convincing a judge in Delaware that evidence really, truly got lost. And find a CEO who, when he or she apologizes for lousy decisions, uses the pronouns âIâ and âme.â
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By Mears, Jennifer  As expected, Intel last week said it would slash 10,500 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce, by the middle of next year as the chip maker attempts to regain its footing in an increasingly competitive x86 processor market.
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After putting a dreary October spin on its prospects for the final three months of the year, Intel allowed Thursday that Christmas may come to techdom after all.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Shares of Intel Corp. fell more than seven per cent yesterday after the computer chip giant&#39;s management lowered the company&#39;s financial projections after concluding businesses and consumers aren&#39;t in a spending mood.
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Intel  on Tuesday posted  quarterly results and an outlook behind Wall Street targets,  sending its shares down 15 percent and stoking concerns about a  U.S. recession and further stock market sell-offs.
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Recent months have seen AMD taking an upper hand over Intel in the chip market. And the latest news is another new indication that Intel is struggling to keep up with the pace they once spearheaded.
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Intel and the One Laptop Per Child had a rocky relationship from the start in their short-lived effort to get inexpensive laptops into the hands of the worldâs poorest children.
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Reduced revenue guidance from Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - news - research) had stocks under pressure Friday ahead of the key August employment report.
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After its recent delays and missteps, chip maker sets its sights on a dual-core future. Intel will look to a multicore future during the Fall Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco this week as it tries
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Intel on Tuesday released third-quarter financial results showing that it continues to struggle to sell a substantial stockpile of computer chips as demand for personal computers remains slow.
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Intel  on Tuesday posted quarterly results and an outlook behind Wall Street targets, sending its shares down 15 percent, further stoking concerns the U.S. economy may be entering a recession.
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Computer chip giant Intel Corp. delivered the latest sign of a high-tech malaise late Thursday as management lowered the company&#39;s financial projections after concluding businesses and consumers aren&#39;t in a spending mood.
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Government is taking a harder look at Intel's plans to create a private chip company with STMicroelectronics.
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With perhaps a month to go before launch, the next big computer chip remains a bit of a mystery, and so every shift in strategy by longtime rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices is being teased for hints of the battle to come.
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As if Intel's profit bomb didn't put  enough of a damper on the summer-ending long weekend, investors  returning next week after Labor Day will be wary of a market  offering as much pitfall as promise.
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Taiwan&#39;s Asustek Computer complained on Tuesday of a shortage of Intel central processing units (CPUs) for laptop PCs, but said it didn&#39;t expect the problem to affect its sales.&quot;The biggest shortage in notebook components is in CPUs, Intel CPUs. Intel isn&#39;t meeting demand,&quot; said Jerry Shen, president of Asustek, answering questions at an investors conference in Beitou, Taiwan.The statement highlights persistent problems laptop PC makers have faced this year in trying to procure certain parts. Strong demand for mobile computers has caused&#160;a shortage&#160;of small LCD (liquid crystal display) screens and small hard disc drives (HDD), laptop makers have complained. Therecall of around 10 million laptop batteries&#160;containing cells manufactured by Sony has also kept these vital parts in short supply since last year.Intel could not immediately be reached for comment.Back-to-school sales in September, and the run-up to the end-of-year holiday season are hot times for people to buy new laptop PCs, and hype around Microsoft&#39;s Windows Vista and&#160;Intel&#39;s Santa Rosa laptop chips&#160;has given an added spurt to demand this year. Laptop PC sales are expected to hit record highs, and some companies believe the market will grow by around 30 percent next year.Supplies of certain laptop parts could become more plentiful once the peak season ends and demand slows down.Meantime, laptop makers have had to keep up with suppliers by maintaining relationships and building inventory when they can.&quot;Our relationship with Intel is good so we don&#39;t have a big problem, but if it wasn&#39;t so good, our troubles might be worse,&quot; said Shen, of the CPU issue.Asustek forecasts it will ship between 4.2 million and 4.4 million of its own-brand laptops this year, not including its popular new Eee PC. The company has targeted shipments of up to 400,000&#160;Eee PCs&#160;this year.&#160;