Intel has reported a net income decline of 27%, as the world's largest chipmaker struggles with weakening PC sales.

Reporting a full-year revenue of US$53.3bn, operating income of $14.6bn, net income of $11.0bn and EPS of $2.13, the company generated approximately $18.9bn in cash from operations, paid dividends of $4.4bn, and used $4.8bn to repurchase 191 million shares of stock.

While still beating company forecasts, Intel's decline from the same period last year represents a shift from PCs to tablets in the industry, with company CEO Paul Otellini suggesting expectations where met during the quarter.

"The fourth quarter played out largely as expected as we continued to execute through a challenging environment," he says.

"We made tremendous progress across the business in 2012 as we entered the market for smartphones and tablets, worked with our partners to reinvent the PC, and drove continued innovation and growth in the data center.

"As we enter 2013, our strong product pipeline has us well positioned to bring a new wave of Intel innovations across the spectrum of computing."

For the fourth quarter, Intel posted revenue of $13.5 billion, operating income of $3.2 billion, net income of $2.5 billion and EPS of 48 cents.

The company generated approximately $6 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion and used $1.0 billion to repurchase 47 million shares of stock.