Intel has had a strong third quarter, posting $1.9 billion in profit.
While profit is down from the same quarter last year, it's fallen by just 150 million. Compared to last quarter, Intel's profits were up $800 million which the chip firm said was the strongest second-to-third quarter growth in three decades.
Revenue followed the same pattern. While it was down from the same period last year, it climbed by 1.4 billion to $9.4 billion this quarter from last.
"Intel's strong third-quarter results underscore that computing is essential to people's lives, proving the importance of technology innovation in leading an economic recovery," said Paul Otellini, Intel's president and chief executive, in a statement.
"This momentum in the current economic climate, plus our product leadership, gives us confidence about our business prospects going forward," he added.
Netbooks and Windows 7
In a conference call yesterday, he reportedly said any strength in the market is from the consumer end. "The strength in our business remains primarily consumer driven with broad-based demand across all geographies," he said.
He added that he saw a lot of "interest" for Windows 7 from businesses, predicting "we'll start seeing corporate purchases on a refresh basis begin in 2010".
Otellini also rather surprisingly said notebooks were driving growth more than netbooks. "While Atom and netbooks are important growth drivers for us, our traditional notebook business remains one of the primary drivers of revenue growth and we expect that to continue in the future," he said.
Click here for all the news from this year's Intel Developer Forum.
