Notebook demand drives up Intel

Despite growing talk from unidentified sources in Brussels that the EU is preparing to ramp up an investigation into anti-competitive practices at Intel – according to the Wall Street Journal – its shares on the German markets were up this morning after the vendor reported record-breaking second quarter results.

Total sales at California-based Intel were up 9% year-on-year to $9.5bn, while net income soared 25% on the same period in 2007, fuelling hopes that the IT industry could still defy the global downturn.

Continued growth in notebook sales led to huge increases in mobile microprocessor and chipset units, according to Intel, although falling prices on notebooks led to a lower-than-expected gross margin of just over 55% across the quarter.

Intel is forecasting total revenues of around $10.3bn during the third quarter.