Intel chips to power low-cost notebooks

Intel's latest low-powered chips are expected to fuel a whole range of affordable notebooks priced between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000.

The company also maintains that its original equipment (OEM) partners such as Taiwan-based Asustek Computer, HTC, HCL, Gigabyte and Palm, will start rolling out cheaper internet-enabled notebooks and handsets at prices that will drive mass adoption in emerging markets.

Its recently-launched Centrino Atom processor technology is specifically aimed at mobile internet devices (MIDs) that would power cheaper mobile handsets.

"We would expect that tens of millions of these notebooks will be sold by 2011, so we think it's a very large market," said Navin Shenoy, Intel general manager for the Asia-Pacific region, adding, "In the Asia-Pacific region, we will expect a big increase in our business."

Market interest in the PC category sparked off with the successful introduction of Eee PC, the cheap mini-laptop introduced last year by Asustek Computer. The popularity of Eee convinced industry insiders that there was a pent-up demand for ultraportable, cheap and compact web accessing devices.

Rajesh Gupta, director"�sales, Intel South Asia, noted, "Cheaper PC in classrooms, in the hands of college students is the most logical way to head straight into the emerging markets."

Global shipments of portable notebooks are expected to rise 25.6 per cent to 138.6 million units in 2008 and the number will balloon to 208.7 million in 2011, according to IDC data.

In India, the company is more bullish on the MID space. Gupta said, "We expect the launch of cheaper handsets with 4.5-6 inch screen size by mid-2008 from our OEM partners."

Seemingly, Intel hopes to combat consumer apathy with low prices. Unlike ultramobile PCs, MIDs are relatively inexpensive. Analysts confirmed that Intel was more than capable of churning out Silverthorne processors cheaply while still selling them at a sizeable profit.

Uday Marty, director of basic platform marketing, Intel, said, "While the MIDs will ultimately vary in size and shape "� taking the form of tablets, smartphones, navigation units and ultramobile laptops "� the unifying theme around MIDs will be full internet access regardless of the device's primary function."

Gupta is hopeful of creating a new market for MIDs in India. "There is no mobile device that can run the same internet that you and I are used to on the PC. Our MID strategy is to make that internet experience available on mobile devices."

Intel is treading on quite a few toes with Atom. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel's closest competitor, has been in this market for some time with its Geode CPUs.

Intel will now directly compete with the England-based ARM, which has ARM core chips on almost every mobile phone on the planet and in many cases there are a couple.

Chip companies such as Texas Instruments and Samsung license cores from ARM, and then build processor and assemble the rest of the chips needed for modern mobile phones and their more powerful cousins, smartphones.