Earnings Preview: Intel's expectations for 2012 to be in focus

Intel (INTC) is expected to report Q4 earnings after the market close on Thursday, January 19, with a conference call scheduled for 5:30 pm ET. The consensus estimate is 61c for EPS and $13.72B for revenue, according to First Call. Intel has faced a number of threats -- the flooding of hard drive factories in Thailand, the weak global economy hurting PC sales, and a lowered corporate forecast for its Q4 revenue on Dec. 12. Guidance for Q4 revenue was lowered to $13.7B, plus or minus $300M. Longer term, Intel is likely to see head winds in its core PC chip market over the next two years, by phone-style chips based on designs from competitors ARM Holdings (ARMH), Nvidia (NVDA), Texas Instruments (TXN) and Qualcomm (QCOM). Also, these peers expect to make inroads into Intel territory when Microsoft (MSFT) releases its Windows 8 operating system later this year. Intel's expectations for 2012 will be in focus. It's introducing a new generation of chips, code-named "Ivy Bridge," which should be in PCs this spring. Last week, it announced that the first smartphone with an Intel processor will be sold by Lenovo this spring in China. Motorola Mobility Holdings, soon to be bought by Google (GOOG), also committed to making phones and tablets with Intel chips. Looking forward: Intel sees the HDD shortage continuing in Q1 of FY12, with supply/demand catching-up in 1H12. For Q1 of 2012, analysts are modeling Intel EPS of 51c, down 9%, on sales of $12.81B, down 0.3%.