Intel revenue outlook rosy for Christmas

By Alun Williams

Posted on 3 Dec 2004 at 13:35

The outlook is rosy for Intel in the run-up to Christmas. A year that has seen a number of setbacks for the Californian chip giant is set end on a more positive note - it has updated its business expectations for its fourth financial quarter, citing strengthening worldwide demand.

Intel had expected revenues for the fourth quarter (ending 25 December) to be between $8.6bn to $9.2bn, but it has now raised estimations to between $9.3bn and $9.5bn.

As well as strengthening sales, Intel also states progress on reducing its stockpiles. 'Intel continues to make progress on inventory reduction and expects a net inventory decrease of several hundred million dollars by the end of the quarter,' reads the official statement.

All other forecasts from its previous business outlook remain unchanged.

The announcement is a positive note in what has otherwise been a rather rocky (although still profitable) year. As well as missing targets for a 4GHz Pentium 4 (before abandoning the project), other roadmap derailments have included the much-delayed 90nm Pentium-M (the second-gen core Dothan, which appeared in May), and the recent delay of the Alviso notebook chipset, which has hit the launch of its next-generation Centrino mobile platform, codenamed Sonoma (put back to the start of 2005), scuppering plans for a pre-Christmas launch. Not forgetting the manufacturing problems, and a minor product recall experienced with the much heralded Grantsdale chipset (Intel's third-generation desktop graphics core).