The personal computer era is over, but what Intel — one of the largest suppliers of chips to PCs — reports still matters.
That’s what Quentin Hardy concluded after Intel on Thursday said its profits fell in the fourth quarter, while revenue rose slightly. That thinking is somewhat counterintuitive these days since Intel has been seen as less relevant by some as the technology landscape has shifted away from PCs.
Still, wrote Mr. Hardy, “Intel’s spending continues to be a key indicator of the health of the tech world.” That’s because if computer chips don’t continue getting better, the entire tech industry sputters, especially as semiconductors are now increasingly embedded across a wider array of products — including cars, toys, cloud computing centers and more.
In other tech news, check out the state of the tech industry in Taiwan as the island nation’s presidential election looms, and all the buzz on the latest (lower) valuation for Foursquare, the onetime highflying social location app.