Intel has reported stronger than expected results for the first quarter of this year. But it failed to provide a formal revenue outlook for the current quarter.
The world's top chip maker said it believed personal computer sales hit the bottom in the first quarter, but said conditions were not clear enough to make precise prediction about the second quarter.
Intel said for internal purposes it was planning for revenue to be flat after the first quarter's $7.1 billion.
'We did see signs that the PC market bottomed out in the first quarter,' said chief financial officer Stacy Smith, noting that first-quarter financial performance was a little better than the company had expected. 'But there still is a lot of economic uncertainty out there that creates a wider range of potential outcomes than normal.'
Intel reported a net profit in the first quarter ended March 28 of $647m, or 11 cents a share, down 55% from $1.44 billion, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit of three cents a share. Revenue fell 26% to $7.1 billion.
