17/01/2014 World Business Report

BBC World News. Now for the latest financial news and World Business

Report. The chips are down for Intel as it

faces the decline of the PC and the rise of the smartphone. Can the

giant of silicon valley reinvent itself? Plus, investing for the

future. We look for signs that corporate America is starting to

spend again. Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Alice Baxter.

Also in the programme, will 2013 see the weakest growth in China in more

than a decade? We look ahead to key GDP figures. But first: For decades

it's been one of the biggest names in technology. But is Intel in

decline? Late on Thursday the world's top computer chip maker

reported profits of 2.6 billion dollars in the three months to

December. That was up around 6% on the previous year but not quite as

much as investors had been expecting. Here are some other

numbers to consider. Intel completely dominates the PC market.

More than 80% of personal computers and servers are based on Intel

chips. The problem is PCs are a declining market. Sales fell 10% in

2013 according to IDC, with further declines forecast for this year. As

we all know - more of us now use smartphones and tablets to access

the internet. Intel has less than 1% of the market for smartphone chips.

Intel's boss has pledged to get its chips into 40 million tablets this

year. With me is Patrick Bliemer, Managing Director of Intel for

Northern Europe. Thank you for coming in to talk to us. One of

Intel's strengths has always been it's complete dominance of the PC

market however the decline of the PC market, overridden by smartphones

tablets, has taken everyone by surprise - has it caught it Intel by

surprise? Not necessarily by surprise. For the first three

quarters of last year we saw a decline in the PC segment. We've

seen it stabilise in the fourth quarter. We've seen the decline

stabilise. We have been revolutionising the PC industry.

From the traditional old type of computers, now it is all about all

truth in, -- thin devices. Including the progress of two N ones. Changes

ahead. And yet you are now looking to enter the smartphone/tablet

market - your Boss has said he wants to get 40 million chips into tablets

this year - aggressively market chips to get into tablets? We are

making huge investments. The robber will hit the road for us this year.

We have very aggressive goals and are confident. Analysts have been

focussing on the performance of your data centre business - is that a

growth area? One analyst described Q4 earnings as disappointing? It is

disappointing. It is still growing, but we expected it to be in low

double-digit. It has been high single digits. It didn't grow as

fast as we expected. A bit of slowdown by the Americas. I wouldn't

be too negative about that. We expect it will grow in 2014. What

new technologies can we expect from Intel over the coming months? What's

going to keep you current? What is exciting for us is the Internet and

wearables. Last week at the atomic show we showed a new product range

to target that segment. Any device will become smart and connected to

the Internet. It will require computer capabilities. That is the

core of our business. We are excited about that market opportunity. In

phones, there are huge volumes. But with Internet it is even bigger.

Lots of chatter about 3-D cameras as well. We will have to leave it

there. Thank you for coming in. A week in to earnings season in the US

and many are looking for indications that companies are starting to

invest again. The trend for the last few years in Corporate America has

been to cut back on spending in order to increase profits. During

the recession, it allowed for companies to give money back to its

shareholders. But in order to grow, companies need to start spending on

their businesses. Samira Hussain reports from New York. One tile at a

time. These workers are transforming this 9000 square foot space into

Jonathan Butler 's newest project. Food lenders will be here. He is

bringing his third markets inside. This is our first venture into

bricks and mortar. We pop up on Saturdays and Sundays and then I

gone on Mondays. We felt it was time to put down some routes and get some

seven-day week businesses. This is a small example of what many hope will

be a trend in corporate America. Spending money on investing in their

business. Now that the US GDP looks at us from a world standpoint to be

the most stable in the world, CEOs are starting to feel more confident

that they can listen the cough is a little bit. It is not just the gross

domestic product that is looking good. There is no longer dragging

confidence and the Federal reserve is easing its financial support of

the US economy. Indications point to a bullish market. Spending tends to

go hand-in-hand with a better economy. Firms spend a lot on

capital equipment and then hire a lot. If the economy is doing better

at producing more goods, it will be a healthier, stronger, wealthier

economy. The tables here. You can go to the bar and get your beer. Beer

and food. The winning combination that made this company invest. It is

now up to other businesses to do the same.

To Asia now where the financial world is looking ahead to growth

figures from China - due to be released early on Monday. A poll by

AFP is already warning that 2013 saw the weakest growth in more than a

decade - with a further slowdown expected this year. Babita Sharma

and the team in Singapore have been looking at this. Babita, what can

you tell us? Good to see. The world is number one

economy has been seen as an engine of growth. While Europe and America

were dealing with slowdowns, you might remember China's economy

entered pretty upbeat starting well. This was dashed as growth stopped

for 2/4 before picking up. They're said to reach seven .3%. We

expecting to hear on Monday? Crucial results on the GDP and the fourth

quarter. And the outlook for this year. Earlier I spoke to a man from

HSBC. They did pretty well in the third quarter. Then decelerated

until the fourth quarter. Some data suggests it is slowing down. It is

not a collapse, but a slowdown. We might see even weaker growth. Growth

is weighing on economic demand. There will be a deceleration. We

should add that other economists we have spoken to said they believe

China is likely to exceed the government 's four-year growth

target of 7.5%. Good news there if that is the case. Those figures are

released at oh 200 GMT. We will bring coverage on this later.

In other news Shares of Goldman Sachs have fallen after the Wall

Street giant reported a 21 per cent drop in quarterly profits. It made

two and a quarter billion dollars in the three months to December - down

from 2.8 billion in the same period the previous year. Rival Citigroup

also disappointed Wall Street despite more than doubling its

quarterly profits to 2.7 billion dollars. Citi's benefited from

retail customers saving more money and a rise in commercial lending.

But it's making less money than it hoped from trading on the bond and

stock markets - where revenue dropped some 11 per cent, much worse

than some analysts were expecting. American Express saw its profits

more than double in the fourth quarter to 1.3

that is also now. Vaccine with a look at the papers.

Many thanks for that. The emergency services have been searching through

the night for Mikaeel Kular. He was last seen on Wednesday night.

Detectives say it there is no sign that a