Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) announced its earnings for the first quarter of 2012 today after the market closed. The company announced earnings of $0.53 per share for the period. Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.51 on revenues of $12.83 billion. The revenues reported today were of $12.9 billion. In the same quarter of last year the company announced revenue of slightly higher at $12.87 billion and earnings per share of $0.56 per share.
The company faces worries in recent years as competition has risen in the processor market and Intel has fallen behind in the mobile computing market. ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH) and Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) manufacture most of the chipsets used in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android phones and tablets. Intel has yet to break into the mobile market but is set to try this year with the release of tablets running Windows 8 with the firm’s chipsets. That move could begin to change the tablet market that has up until now been dominated by the iPad. Windows 8 could open up the tablet market with a successful launch later this year.
2011 was difficult for Intel as supply chain problems from the flooding in Thailand reduced the number of hard drives on the market and drove up the price of computers. That weakness is still a problem for companies in the sector but the situation is getting better. Many analysts are now setting higher targets for Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) this year as the company hopes to see an expansion in its business, though last year’s flooding points to exogenous weaknesses that can cause trouble in the PC market.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) does face an exciting and pivotal year in its development as it launches its apparently revolutionary new processor architecture Ivy Bridge and ramps up for the release of new notebooks based on the company’s Ultrabook standard. The light weight, long battery life and quick acting notebooks are set to become popular this year as several large computer manufacturers are set to release them. Along with what should be a revitalising release of Windows 8 for several platforms the company should see its business change and expand in the future.
The future will be challenging for Intel but they’ve shown they have the ambition to improve the whole market. The Ultra book spec, the second generation of which were released this week, were an unprecedented move by the company showing a possibly bright future as the company tries to improve the whole market with a view to enhancing its whole sales.
