Economic downturn could be over ... for Intel

For Intel, it seems that the economic downturn could be over as the company announced better than expected profits for the third quarter.

Net income came in at $1.9 billion, down from the $2 billion it made during the year ago quarter. Revenue fell 8% to $9.4 billion, but was ahead of analyst forecasts of $9.1 billion.

Here's a breakdown:

• Enterprise CPU revenue: $3.87 billion (down from $4.07 billion)
• Laptop/mobile device CPU revenue: $2.92 billion (down from $3.39 billion)

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said Intel remained "primarily consumer-driven," that back-to-school selling season was "exceeded expectations" and that "people are going to want to move to Windows 7, and it's just a matter of how fast they do that next year."

For Q4 Intel is predicting revenue in the region of $10.1 billion, which would compare favorably to Q4 '08 revenue of $8.2 billion.