Intel's $1b quarter hints at 'healthy' PC market

Intel passed the $1 billion profit mark for the first time in its most recent quarter, surprising doom-mongers expecting a hit caused by disappointing PC sales. Sales were 19 per cent up to $4.62 billion from $3.89 billion a year ago. CEO Andy Grove said the financial report "suggests that demand for high-performance personal computers is fundamentally healthy."

Income was $1.04 billion for the April-June second quarter, up from $879 million for the same quarter a year ago. Profit margins were up to 53 per cent from 48 per cent from the first quarter. Intel said the third quarter was expected to be flat.

However, analysts cautioned that the results might not reflect an upswing in the PC market, stressing that Intel's dominant position in x86 CPUs enabled it to control pricing.

More details are available at the Intel Web site.