These Intel Analysts Just Went To Dinner With Management; Here's What Happened

In a report published Wednesday, Needham analyst N. Quinn Bolton maintained a Hold rating on

, after meeting company officials. Intel announced that its desktop segment share has reached an all time high, while mentioning that it continues to expect a "better than seasonal 2H15" in both desktop and overall operations. "Intel's desktop segment share is at an all-time high, currently in the mid- to high-80% range. The desktop business is split approximately 2/3 commercial and 1/3 consumer and has higher than corporate average exposure to emerging markets," analyst N. Quinn Bolton mentioned. The 2H15 growth in desktop is expected to be driven by some pick-up in demand and inventory restocking after the launch of Windows 10 and improving macro-economic environment. In the report Needham mentioned that Intel is not forecasting a "snapback" in PC demand after the release of Windows 10, but does expect improving demand and some channel restocking post the launch in late July. "Intel expects Skylake should drive a decent upgrade cycle in the desktop market as the Broadwell processor was mostly targeted at notebook platforms (e.g. desktop did not see a Broadwell upgrade cycle). As such, most desktops are still Haswell based and Skylake represents a two generation jump in performance," Bolton added.