Intel Q2 2010 revenue spikes 34pc

Intel today reported what it says was its best ever quarter in history. Its revenue in spring surged 34 percent year-over-year to $10.8 billion and was boosted further by a net profit of $2.9 billion, which itself was up 175 percent compared to spring 2009. The semiconductor firm also touted a three percent increase in the gross margin on its products (to 67 percent) and a slight boost to the average price of a chip.

Executives credited the windfall mostly to the Xeon processors that power servers and workstations, as the Data Center group's sales were up 16 percent compared to the winter; the six-core Xeon 5600 and the eight-core Xeon 7500 were both released in or near the spring. Notebook sales also helped, as the PC group was up two percent over the past three months owing to its 2010 Core series mobile chips.

Atom chip revenues were up 16 percent and pointed to sustained growth of netbooks, although at $416 million they still represent a small portion of Intel's overall processor revenue.

The company is optimistic about the summer and hopes to both keep its gross margin while still increasing its revenue to $11.6 billion. For the whole year, it expects slightly less margin and higher expenses than it had previously forecast.

Intel's results may downplay suspicions that the iPad is damaging netbook sales and possibly full-sized notebooks. The company counts its revenues worldwide, however, where most studies of the iPad's effect have only focused on the US. Apple is still only selling the iPad in several countries.

By Electronista Staff