Intel Q3 call acknowledges slight iPad effect

Intel during the call to discuss its summer results acknowledged that the iPad could be having an effect on computer sales but downplayed the long-term effect. Executives said Apple's tablet was likely taking away sales "at the margin" as customers without a large income often had to choose between one device or another. A similar effect happened with netbooks, Intel claimed, but eventually both regular notebook and netbook sales grew substantially.

Apple was a catalyst and not a destroyer in this view. Intel doesn't plan to have truly thin and long-lived tablets until 2011 but expected to be competitive with Android, MeeGo and Windows tablets. It implied that any sluggishness in 2010 compared to nimbler, ARM-based tablet makers like Apple would get earnest competition soon.

"We think tablets are exciting, and we fully welcome their arrival," the company said during the call. "Apple has done a wonderful job reinventing the category."

Having the "best" computing architecture and sheer global scale would help, Intel said. The statements were somewhat contradicted as many Atom-based tablets so far have mustered half the battery life of an iPad or less and are often subjectively slower due to slow Intel graphics and the heavy demands of Windows 7.

In its early statements during the call, the semiconductor firm had noted that full notebook processor sales were up while Atom was down. There was "softness" in sales mainly in the US and Western Europe, both of which have been cornerstones of iPad sales, although it wasn't clear how much of an effect Apple was having. Analysts from the NPD Group have said that as many as 13 percent of computer sales may have been lost to iPad buyers.

Best Buy may have provided color on the effect as netbook sales dropped by up to half at those stores where the iPad was on sales.

By Electronista Staff