SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 3, 2008 -- Intel Corporation today lowered its first-quarter gross margin forecast to 54 percent, plus or minus a point, as compared to the previous forecast of 56 percent, plus or minus a couple of points, due to lower than expected prices for NAND flash memory chips. All other expectations are consistent with the first-quarter Business Outlook published in the company's fourth quarter 2007 earnings release, available at www.intc.com.

Meanwhile, Seagate filed this statement Tuesday morning with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:

The Company continues to expect overall demand in the March quarter to exhibit normal seasonality off a strong December quarter.

Inventory in the distribution channel for 3.5-inch ATA products is currently in the targeted range of 4-6 weeks for both the industry and the Company's products.

The Company's financial performance as it relates to profitability thus far in the quarter has been better than expected due to a favorable mix of its enterprise and high capacity ATA products and overall pricing that has been slightly favorable to the original plan.

The Company continues to expect revenue to be in the range of $3.2-$3.3 billion and has revised upward expected GAAP diluted net income per share to $0.63-$0.67. Excluding approximately $27 million of purchased intangibles amortization and other charges associated with past acquisitions, non-GAAP diluted net income per share is expected to be in the range of $0.68-$0.72.

The storage company added, "As is typical, demand and pricing during the remainder of the March quarter will be key factors in determining the financial results of the Company."

So is this all good news or bad news?

At a macro level, both Intel and Seagate are saying overall market conditions are the same, except for softer-than-planned memory pricing and firmer-than-expected storage pricing. In other words, it's largely business as usual.