Although flash-memory sales are lower than anticipated, the better-than-expected PC processor sales may be a good sign of things to come for the industry. Several manufacturers have said this year's first-quarter sales results have been especially difficult to predict because of economic uncertainty and war jitters among both consumers and businesses. Dell Computer, for one, predicted a unit shipment decline of about 2 percent or 3 percent for its first fiscal 2004 quarter, which runs between February and April. Intel's results may indicate a more optimistic scenario. Intel's processor sales are trending toward a sequential decline of about 5 percent. That means they could reach the upper end of Intel's usual 5 percent to 10 percent first-quarter sequential decline, Bryant said. The trend looks good, he said, but Bryant stopped short of declaring that a PC market recovery is afoot. "I don't look at what we see here and see signs of an economic recovery," Bryant said. Later he said, "We haven't seen anything yet that we'd call a corporate recovery." Should Intel's revenue come in at the middle of the range, $6.7bn, it will represent a typical first quarter for the company, which usually sees its revenue decline in the mid-single digits from the fourth quarter to the following first quarter. Intel's processor shipments usually drop in the first quarter because PC sales to consumers cool off after the holidays and businesses pause and prepare for the coming year.
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