Intel sells five million tablet processors
Intel sold five million tablet chips in the quarter, but its mobile & communications division revenue fell 61 percent. Laptop sales appear to be stabilizing. However, Intel still has to rely mainly on its data center sales.
According to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, 80 to 90 percent of tablets with Intel SOCs are Android models; the other tablets are Windows variants. Most devices are priced between $125 and $250. Krzanich has set a target of selling 40 million tablet processors in a year, and in the coming quarters, subsidies for manufacturers should ensure that that target is met.
Intel has long wanted to gain a foothold in the smartphone and tablet market, which is still dominated by ARM. However, Mobile & Communications revenue fell 61 percent to $155 million, according to the CEO as Intel is transitioning to mobile chips with integrated 4G and the costs associated with the subsidies for tablet manufacturers. .
It was striking that for the first time since the second quarter of 2012, Intel was able to record a growth compared to last year in the supply of processors for laptops. That would be partly due to sales of 2-in-1 hybrids, which would be 20 percent higher than last quarter, while that previous quarter includes the month of December with traditionally high sales.
Deliveries of desktop chips remain about the same as a year ago. Deliveries increased by 1 percent, but Intel’s turnover was still 1 percent lower, because the average price per chip delivered fell by 3 percent. The consumer market in particular remains weak, according to Krzanich, although he expects improvements to be on the way, partly due to the fact that people are going to replace their Windows XP systems.
The data center and enterprise market continues to drive growth at Intel, with data center product sales up 11 percent year-on-year and the cloud, network and storage divisions all posting more than 20 percent growth. Another important growth market for Intel is the Internet of Things, with revenue growing by 32 percent, driven mainly by strong demand for chips for auto and point-of-sale systems. In the end, quarterly revenue came in at $12.76 billion, up 1.5 percent from last year, but profits fell 4.8 percent.