The microprocessor market leader’s quarter was far from spectacular, but it did meet its targets, and the company said it managed to keep pricing under control, unlike its rival.
Intel’s net income for the three months to March 31, was up 19% at $1.6bn, on revenue down almost 1% at $8.9bn, the company reported yesterday afternoon.
Earnings per share was $0.27, $0.05 better than analysts had been expecting, but that was due to a US tax benefit. It hit estimates on the nose without this payout.
AMD’s same period, by contrast, will coming in below expectations when the company reports its first quarter tomorrow. The firm issued a profit warning last week.
Intel’s chief chipmaking rival expects revenue to be $1.225bn, 20% less than analysts polled by Thomson Financial were, on average, expecting and 8% down on the same period a year ago.
The two firms have been in a price war for some months, and that took a toll on AMD, which said that lower average selling prices, as well as few units shipped, caused the Q1 miss.
If there was pricing pressure, Intel did not see it.
Desktop was competitive this quarter but pricing held firm, and we shipped more Conroes in the first quarter than in the second half of 2006, chief executive Paul Otellini said in a conference call.
What can be taken from this is that Intel managed to not sacrifice price and hold revenue essentially flat, while its competitor sold less product for lower prices. Good news for Intel and bad news for AMD.
Otellini added that sales of flash memory were weaker due to fewer NOR units solds and lower NAND pricing. He also said he was very pleased with the momentum of vPro, the business desktop chip bundle.
