Intel Reports Slight Drop in Earnings

Brian Krzanich, Intel’s chief executive, showed off prototypes last month that utilize the company's new line of chips aimed at wearable computers and sensors connected to the Internet.

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel reported earnings on Tuesday that were slightly lower than the same quarter a year ago, reflecting a drop in demand for personal computers.

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The company, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, reported that net income in the third quarter was $2.95 billion, or 58 cents a share, just a bit below the year-ago quarter. Revenue was slightly higher, at $13.5 billion.

“We are executing on our strategy to offer an increasingly broad and diverse product portfolio,” Brian M. Krzanich, Intel’s chief executive, said in a statement accompanying the release. He called the quarter “modest growth in a tough environment.”

The net income was above the expectations of Wall Street analysts. They had expected 53 cents a share and revenue of $13.47 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has long dominated the market for PCs and computer servers, but was slow to move into mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Mr. Krzanich, who took over last spring, has said that he is taking steps to fix the problem, but that results will take time.

In a Slight Shift, North Korea Widens Internet Access, but Just for Visitors

Cracking the door open slightly to wider Internet use, the government will allow a company called Koryolink to give foreigners access to 3G mobile Internet service by next Friday, according to The Associated Press, which has a bureau in the North.

The North Korean police state is famously cloistered, a means for the government to keep news of the world from its impoverished people. Only the most elite North Koreans have been allowed access to the Internet, and even they are watched. And although many North Koreans are allowed to have cellphones, sanctioned phones cannot call outside the country.

Foreigners were only recently allowed to use cellphones in the country. Previously, most had to surrender their phones with customs agents.

But it is unlikely that the small opening will compromise the North’s tight control of its people; the relatively few foreigners who travel to North Korea — a group that includes tourists and occasional journalists — are assigned government minders.

The decision, announced Friday, to allow foreigners Internet access comes a month after Google’s chairman, Eric E. Schmidt, visited Pyongyang, the North’s capital. While there he prodded officials on allowing Internet access, noting how easy it would be to set up through the expanding 3G network of Koryolink, a joint venture of North Korean and Egyptian telecommunications corporations. Presumably, Mr. Schmidt’s appeal was directed at giving North Koreans such capability.

“As the world becomes increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth,” Mr. Schmidt told reporters following his visit. “We made that alternative very, very clear.”

North Koreans will get some benefit from the 3G service, as they will be allowed to text and make video calls, The Associated Press said. They can also view newspaper reports — but the news service mentioned only one source: Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main Communist Party newspaper.