Despite that Intel expects its revenues to grow 4% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2010, sources from motherboard makers remain conservative about demand in the fourth quarter since the company's revenue growth in the third quarter was mainly driven by server products.

The sources noted that demand from the enterprise market in the third quarter saw significant growth, but the consumer market was not as strong as expected and with the addition of Intel's plans to launch its new platform in January 2011, consumers will likely to take a wait and see attitude in the fourth quarter of 2010, causing demand to drop.

However, the sources also pointed out that the US and Europe markets are already seeing demand recover, while China is currently seeing stable performance.

As for Intel's Atom processor business, since the company saw its revenues from Atom processors drop in the third quarter, the sources believe it indicates that netbook products are being impacted by the strong demand for iPad.

On the other hand, some notebook players believe Intel's performance should help turn their fourth-quarter results from the original forecasts of dropping slightly or remaining flat, to increasing 5% since enterprises will start increasing their spending and should still benefit them overall.

In additional news, Intel CEO Paul Otellini will visit Taiwan with several executives from its technology department to meet with Acer chairman JT Wang as well as to promote its new WiMAX industry chain partnership.