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On Friday, Intel issued a fairly big revenue warning – ie it knocked $1b off its revenue forecast for Q3. It had previously forecast Q3 rev of between $13.8-$14.8b. It also said it was abandoning any further forecasts – always a bad sign. Of course, that really spooked the markets which marked Intel shares down 4%.
But the implications for the whole tech sector are pretty substantial. Q3 is normally a good one for Intel as PC manufacturers ramp up for Xmas and New Year deliveries. But, as we have been warned by Dell and HP, clients are not buying PCs as they were before – preferring tablets and smartphones instead. Intel (like Microsoft) has been pretty tardy in moving to mobile and now they are paying the price.
For the last few years, every supplier to the PC market has been telling me that a ‘PC refresh’ is just around the corner. Indeed, they still seem to have great hopes that Windows 8 will do just that in 2013. I’m afraid to say I don’t buy that. The Windows 8 ‘experience’ might be good on a tablet or smartphone, but it doesn’t look very attractive for those that use a PC with a mouse and keyboard. My own view is that most Enterprise users will stick with their old Windows 7 or even XP systems for as long as they possibly can with budgets (if they still exist) being diverted to tablets.
The Wintel alliance, that has been the tech bedrock for nigh on 3 decades, is on the way out. Both Intel and Microsoft have to make it in mobile to survive. Microsoft seems rather further along that road so far than Intel.
