The PC industry has surely hit rock bottom as multi-billion dollar losses predicted for Intel this week

pcgamer.com:

Financial analysts are expecting Intel to post a monster $3 billion loss when the company announces its numbers for the first quarter of this year later this week.

If that turns out to be about right, it will be the biggest loss in the chipmaker's history. Overall, Intel's sales are expected to be down by around 20% for the whole year compared to 2022. Ouch.

However, industry observers think this is rock bottom for Intel. From here, the only way is up. Marketwatch(opens in new tab) quotes multiple analysts predicting that the first quarter of this year will mark the low point for Intel, with the company returning to growth thereafter.

That chimes with broader analysis for the PC as a whole, with various research outfits(opens in new tab) predicting recovery in the second half of this year for the PC as a whole and for individual component classes.

Part of the problem, as we've noted before, is that people bought PCs and other digital devices in really silly numbers during the pandemic. Quarterly PC shipments jumped from 60 to 70 million units before the pandemic to around 80 to 90 million every quarter for the better part of two years.

So, there's bound to be a bit of a lull following that kind of buying frenzy. There's a metric ton of very new PCs out there that don't need replacing right away. Add in a broader economic downturn and it's not hard to see why sales have slipped.

Intel's losses at this point, therefore, probably don't say all that much about how well the company has performed of late. A downturn was inevitable whatever Intel did. What will be more critical in the near term is how well it can execute on its roadmap moving forward.

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