Intel turns ‘anonymous’
New York, Oct. 13: An average laptop contains about 1,800 components, but only one garners much brand awareness from typical consumers: the chip made by Intel.
Over the years, Intel has used aggressive and catchy marketing programmes to help elevate its position in the computing marketplace.
This cachet has served Intel well, allowing it to command top dollar for its products, which power the vast majority of PCs. The Intel juggernaut was apparent on Tuesday as the company reported earnings better than expected on a sharp revenue increase.
But these days, Intel is moving into a new business — putting its chips inside products like TVs and other consumer electronics. In these areas, that familiar “Intel Inside” sticker found on so many PCs is often missing since it seems out of place on the sleek devices anchoring living rooms. And so Intel’s expansion plans include an unfamiliar level of anonymity.
“Our customers are really trying to deliver industrial designs that are beautiful and elegant,” said Jim Nucci, a brand manager at Intel. “We don’t want to be an obtrusive element.”
With encouraging strong sales of personal computers in the latest quarter and cautious optimism about the next quarter, Intel reported an 18 per cent rise in revenue in the third quarter, to $11.1 billion, from a year earlier. Intel’s net income rose to $3 billion, or 52 cents a share, ahead of the 50 cents projected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The company’s shares, which rose 1 per cent during regular trading, rose another 1 percent to $19.97 in the after-hours market.
“We had record revenue,” Ms Stacy J. Smith, the chief financial officer at Intel, said in an interview. “It was a very good quarter.”
More than two years ago, Intel unveiled a new type of low-power chip, Atom. Intel hoped the product would carry it into growing areas like smartphones, Web-ready TVs and set-top-boxes.
The company’s growth plans hinged on success in these types of devices, and the flashy release of the Atom brand reflected Intel’s lofty aspirations. A host of rival chip makers such as Broadcom and Freescale toil away in obscurity making the chips that go into household objects and consumer electronics devices.
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