by Chris Willhite on January 17th, 2009 at 12:49 pm EDT - 395 views

It looks like the economy is hitting even the biggest of giants. Intel reported that during the last few months of last year, sales were down about 23%. If the figures and predictions turn out to be true then Intel will also have a gross profit in the lower 40’s. The shrinking demand of processors from the consumers really hits Intel hard, and right in the kisser. Especially considering that desktop CPU’s contribute to ~80% of their sales.

PC demand is sinking fast, which takes its toll on Intel because Intel owns 80 percent of the market for microprocessors, the brains of personal computers. Market research firms IDC and Gartner Inc. reported this week that PC sales growth in the fourth quarter was the worst it’s been in six years, with the slump expected to drag out until possibly 2010. -Jordan Robertson

This isn’t to say that AMD is doing any better however, the current state of the economy just makes consumers shy away from shiney new electronic delacacies. If I were one of these companies i’d stop releasing new chips and rev up R&D to get some new innovation ready for when the economy gets back on track, but I’m no buisinessman.I don’t think Intel or AMD will be going away anytime soon, they’re the only real players in the CPU scene today, but they will have some hard roads ahead of them…Let’s just pray they don’t end up like the auto companies.