Intel disappointed with sales in last quarter of 2005

Intel has started this year with a bang. The company has just launched their Centrino Duo processors in the retail market with the launch of Intel powered Apple Macintosh machines in the market. However, not everything went well with the company in the last couple of months as they failed to meet the expectations from the market in the last quarter of last year.

The profits in the last quarter of 2005 were up by around 16 percent. This was below the company’s own expectations. Intel also reported that the net income for the period increased to $2.45 billion compared to $2.12 billion in the same period in 2004. Sales figures for the same period in 2005 were around $10.2 billion. This is an improvement of 6.3 percent but still $200 million short on their estimates.

This shortfall led to company’s share taking a beating in the stock market as the prices fell by around 8.9 percent in extended trading. They face more pressure in the coming times as competitors AMD are emerging as a strong player in the PC and Server processors market.

In addition, IBM, Toshiba, and Sony have also renewed their deal to develop processors for another five years. They might just become the next major headache for Intel. IBM is already the manufacturer of processors which are and would power the next generation gaming consoles (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Revolution).

Intel’s Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant said in a statement: “We think the market in general is OK. We had a little bit of (market) share loss. There was a little bit of weakness in consumption of the desktop PC.”