Despite another strong quarter for chipmaker Intel in terms of revenue, the chipmaking giant couldn’t help but be disappointed by its continued failures to break into the mobile market and the decline of its low powered Atom chipset.
Intel posted Q311 revenue of $13 billion, up some 21 percent year-over-year, but the company saw its margins drop six percent, or five and a half percent in non-GAAP terms, as tablet sales began to chip away at the firm’s lower end netbook sales.
Atom revenue suffered a 15 percent slump over this time last year, bringing in just $352 million in revenue as Intel felt the tablet squeeze. Despite its best efforts, the chip giant has still not managed to crack the burgeoning smartphone and tablet market, dominated by rival chip architect ARM, though some Intel tablet design wins are just starting to trickle in.
This hasn’t stopped Intel insisting it is still a player in mobile, however, claiming that its strong position in data centers, which run the clouds apps are hosted in, puts it at the forefront of mobile importance.
“Strong corporate demand for our most advanced technology, the surge of mobile devices and Internet traffic fueling datacenter growth, and the rapid rise of computing in emerging markets drove record results,” said Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini defiantly.
An anonymous Intel source also told RCR that the drop in Atom revenues was less a result of the tablet crunch and ore of a “product problem” which wouldn’t be solved until Clover Trail for tablets in Q4 and Medfield smartphones in Q1 of 2012.
In fairness, the firm has little to worry about, having ended Q3 with total cash of $11.53 billion.
