Intel is becoming a post-PC company

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel wants to make clear it's not as dependent on the waning PC market, showcasing with some fanfare how its technology can make shoes, drones, even skateboards smarter.

Its results, out late Thursday, will likely reflect some of those strides. But strength from areas outside core PC chips are likely to come from supplying data centers, a market it entered via a large acquisition, than the flashier Internet of Things arena.

Intel (INTC) is anticipated to report adjusted earnings per share of 63 cents, down from 74 cents a year ago, as estimated by S&P Capital IQ Consensus Estimates. During the past two quarters, it's beat Street estimates, building up expectations it will pleasantly surprise again.

Revenue estimates are $14.8 billion, compared with guidance of $14.3 to $15.3 billion and close to flat with a year ago.

The biggest news for many analysts is that Intel seems to have turned the corner, moving from being mainly a producer of chips for PC to producing a much broader and more diversified lineup.

Intel CEO's glitzy keynote emphasizes computers as an extension of you

One example was Intel’s $16.7 billion acquisition of Altera, finalized last month. Altera makes programmable chips, which are key in data centers and the Internet of Things.

Intel also signaled its future intentions with the purchase earlier this month of German drone company Ascending Technologies. The company had already been partnering with Intel, using its RealSense cameras to help drones avoid obstacles.

Intel has accepted that PCs are a diminishing market. According to a report released Wednesday by the research firm Gartner, global PC shipments fell for the fifth consecutive quarter. Overall, global shipments in the fourth quarter fell 8.3%.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said last week he expects "mid single-digit declines" in the PC market this year, buoyed somewhat by the recent release of Microsoft's Windows 10 and Intel's Skylake processor.

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While from a revenue point of view, PC chip sales still dominate for Intel, “from a profit point of view it’s pretty much split between data centers and PCs,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy in Austin, Texas.

Because of that, he’ll be looking closely at what Intel reports on its data center sales.

Margins on data center chips are much higher than for PCs, he said.

“When you’re selling  a chip for upwards of $700, that’s monumental in comparison to a PC chip that’s on average about $90,” Moorhead said.

Intel has also been pushing hard into the Internet of Things, small, cheap sensors that are capable of sending the data they gather. IoT is a hot area, though it’s unclear if it’s going to make money any time soon, said Moorhead.

“They’re investing early in the Internet of Things because they don’t want to get caught flat-footed again” as they were when they missed out on the mobile phone explosion, he said.

Intel's overall shift was especially apparent in its presence at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas last week.

During Krzanich's keynote, he showed off its technology used on skateboards, sunglasses, shoes, dresses (they opened flaps when the wearer got hot) and to make music via hand gestures.

Its tiny Curie hardware modules ship to developers this quarter for less than $10 each.

"We think this an emerging sector that can sells hundreds of millions of these devices---the pieces of silicon. If every kid under the age of 30 as a snowboarder wants that information, over time that’s a lot of devices when you look across the world," he told USA TODAY.

“I’ve been going to CES for 10 years and I have never seen that amount of foot traffic at the Intel booth,” said Betsy Van Hees, an analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

“It’s just a different Intel today than two years ago,” she said.

Intel at CES this year “was all about healthcare, health and wellness, creativity and gaming,” said Moorhead.

News that Amazon had acquired small Israeli chip designer Annapurna Labs doesn't signal any immediate threat to Intel, said Mark Hung, research firm Gartner’s principal Intel analyst.

“They pose a bigger threat to companies like Qualcomm and Broadcom and Marvell,” Hung said.

Annapurna Labs' has been in stealth mode but appears to focus mostly on server network chips, which would be useful to Amazon as it continues to build out AWS, its cloud services devision.