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Tuesday, Apr 24, 2012 10:15 PM UTC

How chips, PCs, services companies are faring

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Topics: From the Wires,

A look at how selected companies providing computers, components, services and related software are faring:

April 11: Research groups Gartner and IDC estimate that PC shipments in the first quarter were ahead of their expectations, though growth was modest in light of competition from smartphones and tablet computers. Hewlett-Packard Co. appeared to have regained some of the business it had lost as it was weighing whether to dump its PC business. Lenovo Group Ltd. showed strong gains over last year. Dell Inc.’s market share fell as it focused on higher-end, higher-profit machines.

April 17: IBM Corp. reports flat revenue, falling short of analysts’ expectations. Software and services revenue grew, but IBM’s hardware and financing segments saw a decline.

Intel Corp. reports first-quarter results that were held back by a shortage of hard drives, which meant that PC makers had to curb production and needed fewer Intel chips. The scarcity was caused by flooding of hard-drive factories in Thailand last year. The company says hard-drive supplies improved during the quarter and the shortage is now over.

Seagate Technology PLC reports that its earnings in the latest quarter surged and revenue almost doubled. CEO Steve Luczo says the company benefited from a general recovery in the market for hard drives. But Seagate says it also shifted its product line to “industry-leading products” across all of its markets.

April 18: Strong demand boosted revenue at Qualcomm Inc. CEO Paul Jacobs says the company benefited from growing global demand for new 3G- and 4G-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. But he says the cost of making more 28 nanometer chips could cut into profit margins in upcoming months.

April 19: Microsoft Corp. reports a surprise rise in sales of its Windows operating system for personal computers. Analysts had assumed that many businesses and consumers thinking about buying a PC would hold off until Windows 8 hits the market in the fall. That didn’t turn out to be the case as revenue in the Windows division increased 4 percent in the latest quarter.

EMC Corp., one of the world’s largest makers of data-storage computers, says first-quarter earnings jumped 23 percent, boosted by increased demand for its cloud computing products.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. says its computing solutions unit had flat revenue, while the graphics segment saw a 7 percent decrease in revenue because of lower demand for desktop and mobile graphics.

SanDisk Corp., a maker of flash memory, says quarterly earnings sank by almost half amid weak demand and low selling prices — trends the company expects will continue in the current quarter. The company says it expects demand to rise, but not until the second half of 2012.

Altera Corp., a semiconductor maker, reports weak results it attributes to lighter-than-expected demand for its products, particularly from customers in the communications industry. In addition, the company said it had some issues trying to fill orders that arrived in the last month of the quarter. The company expects its business to rebound in the second quarter and says its backlog has significantly improved since the end of the quarter on stronger demand for its products.

Monday: Chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. says the business cycle “bottomed” in the first quarter. Orders rose 13 percent. CEO Rich Templeton says 2012 will be “a good year for growth.”

Xerox Corp. says revenue from its services business grew, while technology revenue, such as sales of document systems and supplies, declined. Services now make up more than half the company’s revenue.

Tuesday: Apple Inc.’s Mac sales for the quarter came in slightly below expectations, at 4 million. But Apple once again reported blowout iPhone sales, along with iPad sales that were two and a half times what it sold a year earlier. The relative strength of iPhone sales means they accounted for 58 percent of Apple’s revenue, more than ever. Three years ago, the figure was 27 percent.

Coming up:

Thursday: Western Digital Corp.

May 11: Nvidia Corp.

May 22: Dell Inc.

May 23: Hewlett-Packard Co.

Not yet known: Lenovo Group Ltd., Salesforce.com Inc., Oracle Corp. (June), Micron Technology Inc.

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