From CES, Good News-Bad News Intel Take

And Intel is about to have some real competition in this low-profit segment. Others have just announced Netbook processor platforms of their own. Advanced Micro Devices(AMD Quote) calls its solution Yukon with a new Athlon Neo processor and an integrated ATI Radeon X1250 graphics chip. And Nvidia(NVDA Quote)has a new Ion graphics chip, which uses a GeForce 9400 engine to better compliment Intel's Atom for what they say "blows away" the competition.

Add to this Intel's large investment in some other future, "bleeding edge" technologies such as 4G WiMax wireless -- slowly being rolled out in this country -- and solid-state drives (which are still very expensive compared to old-fashioned computer hard drives) -- and you begin to understand what Intel is facing in the short term and why it's releasing warnings in advance of the next week's earnings numbers.