Notebook News: Intel Misses, Dell Quits, Aspire 1710 Announced, Notebook Sales

Intel Misses Financial Expectations for Quarter and Blames it on Notebook Sales

Intel upset the guys on Wall St. today with the company's financials for the 1st quarter.  Intel reported revenue of $8 billion to $8.2 billion but analysts had expected sales of $8.27 billion.  So cry me a river, maybe they'll have to curb the free chocolate milk employee perk?  Intel blamed it on a slowdown in notebook shipments.  Shipments from Taiwanese notebook manufacturers fell 13 percent in the first quarter from the fourth period, more than double the average annual drop of about 5 percent.  But it was bound to happen, notebook sales this past Christmas were so hot that improving upon those numbers in January would have been impossible.

The laptop chip shortfall likely will be confined to this period, Intel will make up for it during the rest of the year, as consumer demand combined with information-technology equipment purchases by companies boost sales.

Intel also expects higher profit due to new manufacturing processes such as making chips on larger wafers and with smaller wires. A new notebook processor called Dothan, also made with 90- nanometer wires, will be introduced next quarter, and should spark interest and deamand. The chip was originally scheduled to debut at the beginning of the year, but was held up by a design issue that hindered mass manufacturing of the semiconductor.

Michael Dell does what all the other cool kids do, Gives up CEO position

Michael Dell is doing what all the cool tech kids do, give up your title as CEO.  Andy Grove and Bill Gates are just two other giants in the tech world that gave up their CEO position to just kind of hang out at their respective companies and do other things.  Kevin Rollins will take over as Dell CEO this July.  Michael Dell will of course stay on with the company he founded and basically do whatever he feels like doing we imagine.  Knowing this guy that won't involve anything to do with whiling away time playing PC games in his office on the latest Inspiron XPS laptop.  He's kind of a workaholic so you'd better believe he'll be climbing up the company mastpole to see what's on the horizon to start selling next, or which company to try and stomp on next.  Dell's title will actually be "Chairman" and not "That Guy that's Just Hanging Out".

Acer Officially Announces the Aspire 1710 Today Two days After it Started Selling it

Acer today issued a press release with the following title:  "Acer America First to Deliver Workstation Performance in a Value-Priced Notebook; Intense Graphics and 17'' Display Make Aspire 1710 a Mobile Multimedia Powerhouse"  This announcement comes two days after the fact the notebook showed up on their website, so big surprise here, an excerpt follows below or view the full press release here.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 2004--Acer(R) America Corporation, one of the leading worldwide suppliers of laptop PC solutions, today introduced the Aspire(TM) 1710, a mobile workstation for end users who require powerful performance and graphics capabilities in a laptop computer. The Aspire 1710 features a 17" display, Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor with Hyper-Threading Technology and NVIDIA(R) GPU with up to 128MB of dedicated DDR video memory. An alternative to existing bulky systems utilized for video encoding, digital media, gaming and other extreme applications, the Aspire 1710 is the first offering to feature high-end mobile workstation performance at a value notebook price.

"Engineers, architects, artists, gamers and other power PC users require raw computing muscle to run graphics intensive applications but have previously been chained to their desktops," said Sumit Agnihotry, mobile product marketing manager, Acer America. "The Acer Aspire 1710 gives them mobility and flexibility thanks to a lightning-fast Intel Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology, a large and bright panoramic LCD and high-end graphics while maintaining a price point that's previously been the domain of low-end, value systems."

Consumers Buying More Notebooks This year Versus Last so far

Notebook shipments in January 2004 did decline from December 2003, 49% to be exact, but sales are expected to be higher year-over-year as they have already proven for the month of January.  January sales this year versus 2003 increased a whopping 36%.  December is always a tough month to beat due to Christmas sales of course.  The average selling price for a notebook in January was $1,370 during January.

More on this notebook sales report from CNet: http://news.com.com/2100-1044-5168116.html