According to statements by Intel chairman Craig Barrett on Wednesday, the microchip company expects no slowdon in global demand for PCs, despite economic problems in the United States and other countries. Barrett, who was in Lisbon, Portugal, to sign a draft deal with the Portuguese government to make 500,000 cheap portable computers for schools, also indicated that the company was optimistic on demand prospects for low-cost computers and broadband wireless systems.
"We gave a relatively upbeat business forecast, saying that despite the economic problems in the United States our business is so international that we didn"t see any slowdown in the PC market," he said. "We are seeing ... that the slowdown in the U.S. hasn"t spilled everywhere else. The world"s economy is not as robust as it could be, but it"s not a disaster."