Intel has reported record quarterly revenues of $13.1 billion, slightly higher than analyst expectations. Customers continue to spend on data center equipment, with revenues for Intel’s data center group up 15%. However, despite a lot of market interest in low power Atom chips, revenue in that area was down 15% on last year. Rik Myslewski at The Register blames “the netbook-cannibalization effect of Apple’s iPads” for the fall. Quoted in the New York Times, Evercore Partners’ Patrick Wang suggested that “I fully believe that it is the data center — the cloud — that is driving Intel.” Apple, Google, Intel and others have all exceeded market expectations in the past few weeks, but it may still be too soon for complacency. Strong numbers mask the reality of large companies working hard to adjust to new customer requirements whilst building processes that will see recent growth sustained.