Interview with Intel officials about the low-cost PC program in Asia

John A Antone, vice president in charge of sales and marketing, and general manager of Intel in the Asia-Pacific region. He interviewed DigiTimes about the low-cost PC program for emerging markets in Asia.

- How recent are Intel products? Do you have any special plans for 2007?

2006 was a difficult year for sales, especially our mobile platform, which did not meet Intel's expectations. However, the company also believes that the worst is over with the dual-core chip becoming more common and many quad-core chips will be introduced this year.

Along with the introduction of the Bearlake chipset expected in June, support for quad-core chips will be added to the existing P965 and G965 chipsets. It is possible that the 915 and 965 chipsets will not have the "strategic" price as before but Intel will continue to provide this product with better performance and price.

With plans to introduce 45-nm products in the second half of this year, Intel will have the most competitive product lines of the year.

- Intel has recently promoted low-cost PC programs for some new and emerging markets. So will this move help Intel win the upper hand in the low-cost PC market?

Mr. John A Antone

We always pay close attention to emerging markets. For example, we have a 10-year plan for the Indian market, and 20 years for Malaysia and the Philippines. According to our current estimates, there are about 45 million cheap PCs sold in China and this number is still growing rapidly. On the other hand, we are always interested in high-end and primary markets.

We are currently focusing resources on the Asia-Pacific market. We have also partnered with original design manufacturers (ODM) to build a range of low-cost PCs that cost less than $ 299. We are also partnering with Microsoft to distribute Windows operating systems to the education and emerging markets in Asia.

- How will Intel sell quad-core chips in the Asia-Pacific region?

Quad core chips are still considered high-end products, mainly for gamers. Sales of this chip in the Korean market are higher than expected and quad-core chips are becoming the standard game in Singapore. New quad core chips have been introduced since the end of the year and so far countries with limited sales are improving.

Although a $ 1,500-integrated quad-core PC system is still considered too expensive for some Asian markets, in mature markets this price is acceptable. Therefore, we do not aim to develop quad-core chips in emerging markets.

- What is the biggest strength of Intel cheap PC?

Intel is committed to providing the best products according to user needs. Therefore, low-cost PCs will also create some advantages for Intel. With 45-nm processors scheduled to be released later this year and 32-nm processors in the next two years, more products will be available on the market.

When Intel switched from a 65-nm platform to 32-nm, the number of chips produced would be higher while costs would fall. This means Intel's future products will cost less. It is not that we lower the price, but because Intel's advanced technology has enabled us to bring cost effective directly to our customers.