Shmuel (Mooly) Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel Mobile Platforms Group.
By now, anyone with the slightest interest in mobile technology would have heard about the Santa Rosa platform by Intel. Though Centrino is probably one of the most recognized brands around, getting consumers to adopt the new chipset may be an uphill task considering the range of cheaper AMD systems and older Core Duo machines available. CNET Asia spoke to Shmuel (Mooly) Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel Mobile Platforms Group, on how Intel intends to pursue first-time notebook buyers, as well as educate the public on the difference between the various Centrino configurations.
You have said that battery life was not a factor of consideration for first-time buyers. Since one of the key advantages of the new platform is power efficiency, how will you persuade new consumers to take up the Santa Rosa notebooks, keeping in mind that most AMD-based systems are at a cheaper price point?
Mooly: We believe the market is growing for both first-time buyers and second-time buyers. Let me give you an example: China, in year 2000, had 600,000 notebooks. Now in 2006, it has 6 million. In 2010, it will have 20 million. So you can see that there will be many first-time and second-time buyers in the market.
Intel's offering has three categories: the good, the better and the best. I believe second-time buyers will be willing to invest more. They will pay more money to manufacturers for better battery life. Battery life is not only an issue of the chipset solution -- battery density, screen size and how power-conscious the overall design (is) are. They will be willing to pay the extra money.
For first-timers, one thing which is happening in the US is to educate the first-time buyer on what to look for. So if we look at Best Buy, for example -- it will put the claimed battery life on the notebooks and try to educate people. If not, it will go to the entry-level which is Celeron. Customers will definitely get good value for the price, but they will not get the performance of the premium (Core 2 Duo).
With some consumers still unclear what Centrino is really about, will the addition of a consumer-level Centrino Duo and an enterprise-focused Centrino Pro confuse buyers into thinking the latter is superior? How will Intel attempt to inform the customer?
Mooly: I believe the consumer will not be confused for one reason: when you go to the shops, you will not see Centrino Pro. Nobody will put it on the retail shelf. So there will be no confusion between Pro and Duo.
For Centrino and Centrino Duo, probably by next year you will have only the latter. You will not have a Centrino Solo. It will be dual-core from top to bottom. So what you will have is Celeron, which is the entry-level. Then you will have Pentium Dual Core, which is not the same as the Core 2 Duo processor, but is still dual-core. The only place you will see Centrino Pro is by retailers that are selling to small and medium businesses. But they will educate the customer because if you do not have the server and software infrastructure to manage it, there is no point in paying a premium for Centrino Pro.
My own assessment of the Centrino Pro, however, is that it can also target the consumer as a service. I believe the Government or wealthy individual can go to a consumer, someone who doesn't know how to work with notebooks, and say: "You buy my notebook and I am going to support you for the next three years. For a small sum per month, I am going to check your system every month. I am going to install the latest and greatest virus protection. I am going to do everything without you even noticing."
Is that good business? I work in Intel and if my system crashes I call the IT department. I look at my wife and if that happens, she calls 1800-MOOLY. If she sees some small virus or cookie or some strange animation, she is there (on 1800-MOOLY). She cannot do much. If she is innovative she will hit Ctrl-Alt-Del or the on-off switch. In fact, she considers the computer an evil necessity. This is what the majority of the people out there feel. As notebooks get bigger and bigger (market share), more and more people will appreciate the use of the Centrino Pro technology.
If such a business ever takes off, then I will worry about the confusion over the Centrino Duo and Pro technology. Until then, there is no issue.
Are you concerned that since Centrino Pro is using the Draft-N wireless standard, large businesses may be apprehensive about rolling out these notebooks before the 802.11n is ratified?
Mooly: Normally, enterprises take it a lot slower when it comes to adoption. Some may take another quarter or longer to adopt Centrino Pro systems. But I believe the final 802.11n protocol is going to be very close to the Draft-N standard. I cannot guarantee they will be the same as legally I cannot promise something in the future, but I am confident they will be similar.
Will the constant change from deep sleep state to active state result in faster wear-and-tear damage to the chipset?
Mooly: No, definitely not. There is no reliability issue associated with the sleep state feature. In fact, you can say it is better for the system as powering down results in less heat, hence reducing wearing out.
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