Executives from Advanced Micro Devices sounded slightly on the bearish side for the first quarter of 2007 last night when they announced their most recent quarterly earnings.
Remarks from AMD chief Hector Ruiz in a conference call with financial analysts threw some light some lingering questions regarding Microsoft's forthcoming Vista operating system:
We have done the best we can in trying to anticipate how we think the first quarter might look. Frankly, we are getting mixed signals from our customers, both in the consumer electronics space as well as the PC space. The market seems to be a little uncertain. The uncertainty around Vista is still there, even though we're very, very bullish on what Vista is going to do for the whole year, but the first quarter impact is rather questionable.
(That contrasts, by the way, with what Intel CEO Paul Otellini said last week on his company's conference call with financial analysts. Otellini said, "I think it is going to be instant adoption for new machines right out of the chute. . . ")
Last night, Ruiz did add that he expects Vista to eventually expand in the PC market in 2007. But that does raise a question: What are OEMs telling Intel about first-quarter Vista adoption that they're not telling AMD, or vice versa?
