Intel's Q3 revenue beats estimates but is still down year-over-year

Intel has released third quarter revenue and earnings that, while lower than those from the same time period last year, topped analyst estimates in both categories. The chip maker reported revenue of $13.5 billion over the three month period, a five percent drop from last year’s $14.23 billion haul. Earnings per share came out to $0.58, down from $0.65 from the same time period in 2011.

On an individual basis, Intel’s PC client group brought in revenue of $8.6 billion, down eight percent compared to the year-ago quarter. The company’s other architecture groups accounted for $1.2 billion in revenue which is a 14 percent drop since last year.

The bright spot for Intel in an otherwise down quarter was their data center group. It collected revenue of $1.2 billion, good for a six percent increase versus Q3 2011.

Intel chief Paul Otellini blamed the decline in revenue on the continued tough economic environment. The company expects sales of $13.6 billion for the fourth quarter and as is the case with a number of other companies, there’s a lot riding on the launch of Windows 8 next week.

Otellini told investors on a conference call that Intel expects to see more than 140 Core-based Ultrabooks in the coming months. 40 of those will include touch capability while another dozen or so will be convertibles – hybrid tablet / Ultrabooks.

Chipzilla will also no doubt be looking towards mobile for a revenue boost moving forward. Otellini mentioned this briefly during the investor call, saying his company is continuing to make progress in handhelds.