June 1st, 2009
Intel announces new chips, excited about notebooks, WiMax
Intel offered a sneak peek Monday afternoon at some news it plans to announce today at the Computex show in Taiwan. The company said it will introduce three new Intel Core 2 Duo processors, a new ultra low voltage Pentium processor and a new mobile chipset. (Statement)
On a webcast Monday morning, Uday Marty, director of product marketing for the company’s mobile platforms group, spoke directly into a camera to announce the news while slides appeared on screen next to him. What struck me as odd was that Marty didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the news itself. Instead, he kind of came across as a cheerleader for the company’s mobile initiatives, rambling on with such a positive outlook that, for a moment, I almost forgot that we’re in one of the worst global recessions of this generation and spending - by both businesses and consumers - has slowed way down.
Sure, some people are kind of bullish on an economic recovery, but Mr. Marty spoke of a turnaround for mobile computers - notebooks, not netbooks - as if he recently had been in Doc Brown’s time-traveling DeLorean and had first hand knowledge of this great 2010 recovery. (see chart)
I know it’s the role of marketing folks to put a positive spin on news events and developments and I also realize that he was putting a company spin on analyst projections but something didn’t feel right about Marty’s general upbeatness about the future.
I’m all for companies using social media tools. And watching this briefing from my computer, instead of some hotel conference room, was a better way to go for me. But during the Q&A session - which involved a host reading questions that were submitted online - I realized that Intel was going to launch soft news without allowing the tech press to truly scrutinize the announcements. Case in point: Intel’s general giddiness about WiMax.
Someone online, presumably a reporter, wanted a comment from Intel about Jupiter Research figures that put LTE - or the 4G Long Term Evolution technology that’s being backed by Verizon Wireless and AT&T - as being a $70 billion market by 2014 while lowering its WiMax projections from $20 billion in 2013 to $15 billion by 2014.
His reply: Intel is excited about WiMax as a technology and that momentum keeps building in countries around the globe. As for a comment about LTE, he had none - other than to say again that Intel is bullish on WiMax. And the Webcast host who asked the question on behalf of the person who submitted it simply moved on to that next question. In a real press conference, a determined journalist would have pressed harder.
As for the news itself, I didn’t get much from the event itself other than the ultra low voltage processor will increase battery life but only by sacrificing some performance power. The webcast seemed like a waste of time for all involved - at least in terms of presenting news. In this case, a press release in my inbox would have been sufficient.
Also see: CNET: Intel launches chips for low-cost, thin laptops
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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