Last week AMD cut its revenue guidance for the current quarter, and  analysts cut their estimates for Intel.  Mike McConnell of Pacific Crest Securities lowered his estimate for Intel over the weekend, expecting an increase of only 5 percent in motherboard sales.  That’s not much compared to the double-digit growth that analysts’ were expecting for the first quarter.

Research firm Gartner in turn also released a report last week, which concluded that PC sales are down 0.1 percent year over year. A weakening in the Asian region, where desktops are only increasing in popularity and not the other way around, is considered the main reason behind the pessimism that surrounds Intel right now.

Nevertheless, optimism won this time. Revenue was up from $12.9 billion in Q1 to $13.5 billion, and the company reported a net profit of $2.8 billion – 3 percent more than in the same period last year. The PC group also grew by three percent and most notably, Intel’s data center business saw a rise of 14 percent in sales this quarter.

The firm, which celebrates its 44th anniversary today, did lower its outlook however. It now expects revenue growth of only 3 to 5 percent.

From Time:

“As we enter the third quarter, our growth will be slower than we anticipated due to a more challenging macroeconomic environment,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement. Or, as Quentin Hardy of The New York Times put it: “The world’s largest semiconductor maker is getting pounded by poor consumer demand.”

Previously Intel got caught up in a big security fuss over a flaw that concern all systems that are powered by its chips and run 32-bit versions of XP, x64 Windows 7 and other releases of Microsoft’s OS.