Intel Lusts After The Data Centre As PC Revenue Dips
Revenue is flat and its PC business down but Intel CEO says losses offset by gains in the data centre and Internet of Things
Intel has blamed its sluggish first quarter revenues on an uninterested PC market, and is instead looking to the data centre and cloud to secure the company’s future growth.
The first quarter of 2015 saw Intel make $12.8 billion in revenues, with an operating income of $2.6 billion.
Flat
“Year-over-year revenues were flat,” admitted Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. But the firm said that the decline in its PC business was offset by offset by growth in data centres and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Krzanich said that “double-digit revenue growth in the data centre, IoT and memory businesses” made up for “lower than expected demand for business desktop PCs”.
“These results reinforce the importance of continuing to execute our growth strategy,” said the
CEO. The firm’s data centre group revenue reached $3.7 billion, up 19 percent year-over-year. Its Internet of Things group revenue hit $533 million, up 11 percent year-over-year.
Intel sells its servers, chips and services into data centres, and looks to provide a whole portfolio for the software-defined data centre architecture.
Last week, Intel’s plans to buy IoT chipmaker Altera fell through over price disagreements, but the the company is still predicting the Internet of Things sector to become one of its top earners.
In March, IDC forecast that PC shipments would drop 4.9 percent in 2015, with a total of 293.1 million PCs sold. This is a revised forecast from the original 3.3 percent decline being expected and will be the fourth consecutive decline for the PC market, according to the research firm.
“The gains in mature regions for 2014 helped stabilize the market, but any opportunity for long-term growth depends on reviving growth in emerging regions, and that seems unlikely with the shift toward mobile devices,” said Loren Loverde, VP of Worldwide PC Trackers.
