Intel Cutting 6% of Jobs Amid Widening Slump
Intel Cutting 6% of Jobs Amid Widening Slump Saying that the slump in PC sales has spread to networking, communications, and servers, chipmaker Intel is warning that first-quarter revenue won't meet expectations, and that it will cut 5,000 jobs over the next nine months. Intel says revenue for the quarter should be down about 25% from the fourth quarter's $8.7 billion. It had said that revenues would drop 15%. Intel execs were not immediately available to comment. During an Intel conference last week, CEO Craig Barrett said the U.S. economy was experiencing a "definite slowdown," but he vowed at the time not to cut R&D or investments in manufacturing capacity. On Thursday, however, the company said it would snip 2% off R&D this year, to $4.2 billion from the $4.3 billion originally planned. Intel said it won't reduce capital spending, which remains at $7.5 billion for the year. - Paul McDougall -- Fred A. Miller Systems Admin. Cornell Univ. Press Services fm@cupserv.org
I wonder if the computer "revolution" is not now in saturation. Probably everyone who wanted a computer now has one, and most businesses probably have machines that are as fast as they need. Particularly if they are running Win 95 instead of Win2K. It is now only those who really have need of superfast machines that will buy replacements. True, there are business aps that require new fast machines, but how frequently do these appear, compared to office aps that are now fulfilled? And perhaps business people are beginning to detect the uselessnes of upgrading Windows every year or two. Especially since WinME is a DOWNgrade in many respects. de wa2say At 16:35 03/09/2001 -0500, you wrote:
Intel Cutting 6% of Jobs Amid Widening Slump
Saying that the slump in PC sales has spread to networking, communications, and servers, chipmaker Intel is warning that first-quarter revenue won't meet expectations, and that it will cut 5,000 jobs over the next nine months.
Intel says revenue for the quarter should be down about 25% from the fourth quarter's $8.7 billion. It had said that revenues would drop 15%.
Intel execs were not immediately available to comment. During an Intel conference last week, CEO Craig Barrett said the U.S. economy was experiencing a "definite slowdown," but he vowed at the time not to cut R&D or investments in manufacturing capacity. On Thursday, however, the company said it would snip 2% off R&D this year, to $4.2 billion from the $4.3 billion originally planned. Intel said it won't reduce capital spending, which remains at $7.5 billion for the year. - Paul McDougall
-- Fred A. Miller Systems Admin. Cornell Univ. Press Services fm@cupserv.org
Probably, for all who can afford them at the current commodity prices. But, get the hardware down to under $100 US for a 1GHz box with 256MB of RAM and 40GB hd with a NIC and sound, monitor extra, and sales may pick up. Third world countries would have to have an economy that needs computerizing, which would require a credit and retail sales infrastructure with roads and transportation to support them. A person making less than $1,000 US probably doesn't have a computer at the top of their needs list. Sub $100 computers possible? I think so, and within a decade. I saw a photo of a paper phone today, which they plan to sell at supermarket counters for under $10, including 60 minutes of time. No bigger than a credit card and unfolds like a short stack of fan-fold printer paper! JLK On Friday 09 March 2001 21:06, you wrote:
I wonder if the computer "revolution" is not now in saturation. Probably everyone who wanted a computer now has one, and most businesses probably have machines that are as fast as they need. Particularly if they are running Win 95 instead of Win2K. It is now only those who really have need of superfast machines that will buy replacements. True, there are business aps that require new fast machines, but how frequently do these appear, compared to office aps that are now fulfilled? And perhaps business people are beginning to detect the uselessnes of upgrading Windows every year or two. Especially since WinME is a DOWNgrade in many respects.
de wa2say
At 16:35 03/09/2001 -0500, you wrote:
Intel Cutting 6% of Jobs Amid Widening Slump
Saying that the slump in PC sales has spread to networking, communications, and servers, chipmaker Intel is warning that first-quarter revenue won't meet expectations, and that it will cut 5,000 jobs over the next nine months.
Intel says revenue for the quarter should be down about 25% from the fourth quarter's $8.7 billion. It had said that revenues would drop 15%.
Intel execs were not immediately available to comment. During an Intel conference last week, CEO Craig Barrett said the U.S. economy was experiencing a "definite slowdown," but he vowed at the time not to cut R&D or investments in manufacturing capacity. On Thursday, however, the company said it would snip 2% off R&D this year, to $4.2 billion from the $4.3 billion originally planned. Intel said it won't reduce capital spending, which remains at $7.5 billion for the year. - Paul McDougall
-- Fred A. Miller Systems Admin. Cornell Univ. Press Services fm@cupserv.org
On Friday 09 March 2001 22:06, Doug McGarrett wrote:
I wonder if the computer "revolution" is not now in saturation. Probably everyone who wanted a computer now has one, and most businesses probably have machines that are as fast as they need. Particularly if they are running Win 95 instead of Win2K. It is now only those who really have need of superfast machines that will buy replacements. True, there are business aps that require new fast machines, but how frequently do these appear, compared to office aps that are now fulfilled? And perhaps business people are beginning to detect the uselessnes of upgrading Windows every year or two. Especially since WinME is a DOWNgrade in many respects.
de wa2say Doug,
The way I see things, the problem is not that people don't have a desire or need for faster machines. There is simply a lack of easy to use software that can take advantage of such performance. About the only thing I have done that really pushes my systems to their capacity vis-a-vis the CPU is compiling the KDE. (That may actually be more dependent on the memory bus speed than cpu speed.) I used to do some povray stuff back in the DOS days which really pushed things to their limits. The stuff was extremely difficult to work with. C'mon folks, how many little girls are there out in computer land who would love to play with an easy to use 3D animation package that could create fantasy worlds with butterflys and puppy-dogs? The "problem" is that the power of the hardware exceeds the power of the programs. Something else that would be interesting to know in the realm of this discussion is how people actually use their computers at home and in the workplace. How would people like to use their computers? Most importantly, what stops people from using their computer the way they really want to? Ease of use, ease of use, ease of use! Steve
participants (4)
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Doug McGarrett -
Fred A. Miller -
Jerry Kreps -
Steven T. Hatton