Intel happy with seasonal pattern

Intel Corp said the return to seasonal patterns in the chip market was holding in the current quarter when it released its mid quarter financial update yesterday.

The Santa Clara, California-based vendor said it expected revenues for the first quarter to come in between $6.6bn and $6.9bn. It had earlier forecast a revenue range of $6.4bn and $7.0bn. It reiterated it expected gross margin of 50% plus or minus a couple of points adding that gross margin should come in above the mid point of this range.

Intel CFO Andy Bryant said that the vendor's server chip business was doing slightly better than expected, and the general processor business was performing to expectations. The communications business remained weak.

Bryant said demand had returned to a seasonal pattern, within the "new economic levels which began a year ago."

While much of the PC industry has been suggesting corporate buyers would soon begin a strong upgrade cycle, Bryant said that so far the company had not seen any evidence of this kicking in.

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