AMD published its Q1 2014 financial results last night and investors were pleasantly surprised. Chimpzilla's revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter was a 12 per cent decrease on the preceding quarter but marked an increase of 28 per cent year-on-year. Overall it is said to have beat investor forecasts due to the continued momentum of next-gen console sales.
Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One momentum continues
The PC industry's shrinkage for eight consecutive quarters isn't good for AMD but as it tries to adapt to the demand for processors in mobiles and tablets it is at least bringing in cash from console chip sales. Earlier this week we heard from Sony, saying it has sold over 7 million PlayStation 4s since launch. Yesterday Microsoft also gave us some Xbox One sales numbers; it said that over 5 million Xbox One consoles have been "sold-in to retailers," since its console launched.
Further AMD transformations in progress
Rory Read, AMD president and CEO, said in a statement accompanying the financial results that "AMD continued our momentum by building on the solid foundation we set in the second half of 2013, further transforming the company". We went on to positively appraise AMD's foundation in the PC industry and its hopes oof successfully diversifying further, "Backed by our powerful x86 processor cores and hands-down best graphics experiences, we achieved 28 percent revenue growth from the year-ago quarter. We are well positioned to continue to grow profitably as we diversify our business and enable our customers to drive change and win."
AMD highlighted the following important developments in the previous quarter:
- Expansion of the Radeon range in the mainstream and with the new R9 295X2
- Developer support of AMD Mantle graphics API
- AMD's own support of Microsoft's DirectX 12
- The availability of the AM1 platform and associated 'Jaguar' core processors
- Collaboration with Adobe to speed along Adobe Creative Cloud applications
Looking forward AMD hopes to see revenue increase by about three to six per cent in the next quarter though admits it could also remain flat. Cody Acree, an analyst at Ascendiant Capital summed up to Reuters that "This is a company that's still in the midst of a very long-term turnaround but you're seeing some successes". Acree admitted this process will take some time, "None of this is a flip of a switch overnight. It's a plodding quarterly restructuring that really is going to change who AMD is."
A couple of days earlier Intel published its Q1 results which also beat analyst gloom but showed that its mobile efforts are significantly eroding its profits. Intel still awaits some payback for its investments in mobile diversification.
