Results from the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend look encouraging for PC sales
although it's too early to made predictions about the entire holiday
shopping season, and the PC industry still faces long-term problems, the
CEO of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices said.
The growing popularity
of Apple's iPad and other tablets have sapped demand for PCs, and with
economic growth slowing in China and struggling in Europe and the United
States, global shipments are expected to decline slightly this year,
the first annual drop since 2001.
"We've seen some positive news
out of Black Friday over the past several days," AMD Chief Executive
Rory Read told investors at a conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on
Tuesday. "Our performance over that period looked reasonably well but I
think it's a little early to call the holiday season."
Read
reiterated that he does not expect the PC market, which accounts for
about 85 percent of AMD's business, to recover for several quarters.
Manufacturers
have been betting Microsoft's long-awaited launch of its Windows 8
platform in October will help drive PC sales this holiday season. But
Read said the operating system's release came at an awkward time and
held up inventories going into September, when manufacturers are
normally busy building PCs for the holiday season.
One of Silicon
Valley's oldest chipmakers, AMD has been laying off engineers while
looking for new markets for its chips as it faces depleting cash
reserves.
It has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to explore its
options, although an outright sale of the company is not the main
option, according to sources.
Sales over the Thanksgiving weekend
and the holidays in general are closely watched by investors. U.S.
retailers can generate a third of their sales and up to half of their
annual profit in November and December.
Like its larger rival
Intel, Sunnyvale, California-based AMD was caught flat-footed in recent
years with the emergence and fast growth of mobile devices.
Shares of AMD were up 0.53 percent at $1.88.
© Thomson Reuters 2012