Intel On The Move: Diversification and the Netbook

This year’s Intel Developer Forum has been very interesting to say the least. Not only have they released their usual fare of different chips and announced future ones, Intel has also been diversifying like never before. Given the sheer variety of things that they are dabbling in, a pondering on Intel’s future is fully warranted at this point.

Looking at the hardware side of things, it is obvious that Intel actually looked upon the netbook market and decided that they can quickly release a chip that would suit this new class of devices. They of course did not anticipate this much growth and their current steps are showing the surprise.

Once they realized that things are going so well, they decided that they have to consolidate the market for retaining the share that they now command. Which is why it started the Atom Developer Program. But there is more to it than meets the eye.

A chipmaker should understand better than anybody else that the money is no longer in the power hungry performance beasts like the Nehalem chips. Sure they have a steady demand at the high-end of things but the actual market is now in the MID, Netbook and SmartPhone categories. The future essentially belongs to the portables to the ultra-portables to the handhelds. With the sagging economy, the focus on convergence and more support for mobile broadband, everyone wants to carry one single device to do it all instead of spending money on multiple portable and non-portable devices.

For example, most people are carrying their iPhones to meetings and classes for taking notes. The same device also entertains them, lets them access everything the Internet offers (minus Flash content) and offers un-paralleled functionality via the 75,000+ apps. Similarly, people are making do with just one netbook and no laptop or desktop. This is because not everyone’s a professional and they have realized that that is all they need. Desktops have one foot in the grave and laptops are replacing them even as the market declines further.

Given this scenario, it is no wonder that a mainstream chipmaker like Intel is looking towards the markets of ARM and VIA who are mainly known for their power-efficient chip designs for handheld devices.

For now, we can tell that Intel is heavily netbook focused. We are not hearing Nehalem as much as we are hearing Atom. The new CE4100 may be a routine upgrade but it is also true that Intel has big plans for its smallest chip, namely Atom and soon Moorestone.

Moorestone is the platform that will succeed Atom in the (very) near future. The aim is of course to increase power efficiency as well as performance.

Then there is the software market. Other than the Atom Developer program, there is also the Moblin initiative. I have already mentioned that fact that it will compete directly with Android if makes it to a Smarpthone device but consider its original objective – running on netbooks. Netbooks are currently running on stripped down versions of Windows. So in all practicality, Intel will actually be competing with Microsoft in the netbook segment. It wasn’t very long ago when Microsoft declared in April this year that they are looking at the netbook market with the explicit intent of making money.

We still don’t know what will become of the Chrome OS but we can guess. While we spend time talking about the Google SideWiki, Google Wave is inching closer to worldwide release. This revolutionary platform, coupled with a speedy, open to all Chrome OS with built-in support for Google Apps might make for a very compelling combination indeed for netbooks owners.

Thus whatever Intel is planning, it will end up on the anvil with the others as the end-users pass judgment over the many choices that they will be facing very soon.

Read Related Posts

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3. Does Your Netbook Scream?
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