Santa Clara, California: Intel Corp, facing criticism that the personal-computer industry hasn't responded quickly enough to Apple Inc's iPad, said concerns that tablets will replace PCs are overblown.
Consumers are buying iPads as a separate item, rather than swapping out their computers, said Tom Kilroy, head of sales at Intel, the world's largest chipmaker. A typical iPad owner may delay buying their next laptop, but the lag is probably only about two or three months, he said. Intel expects PC sales to grow about 14 per cent this year.
"Our hair isn't on fire," Kilroy said in an interview Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "If you talk to retailers, most of them will tell you that the people who are coming in to buy them are coming in to buy them as additional devices."
While Intel's chips run more than 80 per cent of the world's PCs, it hasn't converted that into success in the tablet market. Earlier last week, Piper Jaffray Cos analyst Gus Richard cut his rating on Intel's stock, saying the company is missing the next wave of computing.
Shares of Santa Clara, California-based Intel fell four out of five days last week. The stock dropped 11 cents to $20.66 (Dh75.86) on Nasdaq on Friday.
Caught napping
Microsoft Corp also has faced criticism that the PC industry was caught napping by the iPad, which debuted in April. Using technology from Intel and Microsoft, computer makers have struggled for a decade to produce a successful tablet. Apple sold 7.46 million iPads through September last year, proving that the concept could catch on.
