Intel Q2 Earnings Beat Expectations, Netbooks Down, Cloud Computing Strong

Intel's Q2 earnings report has beat expectations with record revenue of $13 billion, up 21 percent from the same quarter last year. Net profit for the quarter hit $3 billion, up 2 percent year-over-year. The chip giant's PC business growth slowed down, netbook sales expectedly declined, but its server business burgeoned with data center upgrades that followed the increased demand for cloud computing.

PC business revenue for Intel rose by 11 percent year-over-year, indicating that PC sales have yet to be majorly impacted by more mobile developments but have certainly slowed. Their Intel Atom chipset business dropped 15 percent year-over-year, which reflects the decline in netbook sales. This raises concerns in the company's transition to smartphones and tablets.

However, when asked about Intel's missing presence in the mobile device market, the company argued that they're actually already a major mobile device player because they power all of the data centers that deliver content to mobile devices via cloud computing. Indeed, there was a strong demand for Intel's server chips with their data center group revenue increasing by 15 percent.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement that "Strong corporate demand for our most advanced technology, the surge of mobile devices and Internet traffic fueling data center growth, and the rapid rise of computing in emerging markets drove record results."

[via ZDNet]