Orders for Intel Mobile Chips Slahsed by 30-50%

According to DigiTimes report today:

"Leading notebook vendors, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer and Asustek Computer, reportedly have slashed their orders for CPUs and chipsets already placed with Intel by 30-50% due to an unexpected rise in notebook inventory in the first quarter of this year, according to sources at Taiwan notebook makers."

The causes are believed to be Obsborne effect and Intel's lack of AMD64:

"Vendors suspect that consumers are waiting for the launch of dual-core Napa-based notebooks, resulting in slow sales for the single-core Sonoma-based notebooks, the sources indicated. Although some Napa-based notebooks are available now, consumers also have shunned them due to their higher prices, the sources noted.

In addition, the planned year-end launch of Microsoft’s Vista OS is also a concern as consumers are worried that the notebooks they buy now might not be able to run with the 64-bit enabled Vista OS, the sources stated."

A couple of days ago, IDG reported that notebook sales are on the rise, if that report was true, then AMD64 is making massive gains in mobile. Yes, Turion 64 X2 is ready and FAB36 is ramping.

I projected 3Q06 operating loss for Intel. I may have to move the time frame forward to 2Q06, depending on Intel's strategy.