Shortage of hard-disk drives may help Intel’s expansion in ultrabooks

Thai floods forced Intel to slash its sales forecast for the current quarter as the floods have affected production of hard-disk drives, but the world’s leading manufacturer of microprocessors sees an opportunity in shortage of drives.

It should be noted here that dearth of hard-disk drives will force manufacturers to make fewer PCs and computer servers, which means demand for Intel’s microprocessors will be lower than previously estimated.

But, Intel will get an opportunity to build a business in the emerging category of ultra-thin laptop computers, which do not use hard-disk drives.

Ultrabooks don’t use mechanical hard drives. They usually use solid-state drives which use flash memory chips. An ultrabook is more popular than tablets as it has larger screen and the familiar keyboard.

Solid-state drives, which are readily available from Intel, consume less power and less space than hard-disk drives.

San Jose-based industry analyst Rob Enderle said, “If Intel is given lemons, it will make lemonade. It’s a chance to have an even broader Intel platform. You’ll see people pushing solid state quite a bit now, Samsung, Intel and others.”

Thus higher demand for solid-state drives may compensate Intel for loss from shortage of hard-disk drives.

On Monday, Intel slashed its revenue forecast for the current quarter from $14.7 billion to $13.7 billion.