Intel surprised Wall Street by posting a record $9.7 billion in revenue for the company’s first business quarter — a 9 percent rise from the year-earlier period. The world’s leading microprocessor maker also reported net income of $1.4 billion, together with earnings of 25 cents per share.
Company executives said Intel’s microprocessor business strength and strong execution helped the company overcome a challenging flash memory market in which the company’s combined NOR and NAND chip revenues fell 15 percent from the prior quarter.
In particular, Intel saw healthy demand for its processors and chipsets across all market segments, noted Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini.
“Our first-quarter results demonstrate a strengthening core business and a solid global market environment,” Otellini told investors during a conference call. “Looking forward, we remain optimistic about our growth opportunities as we continue to reap the benefits of our 45nm technology leadership,” he said.
One Good Sign
Looking ahead, Intel anticipates growing its revenue base by achieving an ever-growing number of design wins for its new Atom microprocessor family for mobile applications. One good sign, Otellini said, is that the crossover from the desktop to the notebook appears to be happening essentially a year sooner than Intel had expected.
“I think that is good news for Intel given the strength of our product line, both on the Centrino side and now with the notebooks and Atom starting to show fairly good volume projections,” Otellini said.
He noted that the bulk of the early notebook sales to date were either in mature markets or in tier-one cities in China and other places, with most people buying them as fashion accessories or as a second or third notebook for the household. “But I think we are still in the early stages,” Otellini said.
“It’s like the early days of the…