Boston, MA 01/13/2013 (wallstreetpr) – Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is set to deliver 4Q2013 results on Thursday. Not much is expected from the company. 2013 saw a double-digit decline in sales of PCs for the first time and this is expected to weigh heavily on the company.
Intel and the PC market:
The decline in the PC market and the emergence of smartphones and tablets have caught many companies, including Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) on the wrong foot. The company is a dominant player in the chip business for PCs and had notched up impressive results during the hey-days. The shift in computing business to smartphones caught it by surprise and it could not realign itself fast enough. Its closest competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NYSE:AMD) also faced a similar situation but its diversifications in graphics cards for the gaming console lines appear to have paid off.
Intel has reported record shipments of Core i5/i7 processors which is good news. These processors sell at a higher price point than Core i3/ Pentium and hence also result in higher profit margins. This may also indicate that smartphone/ tablets have had an impact on the lower end of the PC market rather than the higher end.
The other markets:
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is yet to make a significant impact in the smartphone segment. It is however expected to better in the modem business. The company expects to start shipping advanced LTE modems with category 6 speed support during the first half of 2014. This will give a first mover advantage to Intel and the competition will have to react fast to catch up. QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is building its modem on an expensive platform but would result in performance and power efficiencies. Thus, the first mover advantage to Intel could be very short lived.
Till the results are out, the stock is trading in a very tight range, the shares closed at $25.53 at the end of trading on January 10, 2014.
