The first smartphone with Intel Inside is now available to Indian consumers. The $54-billion chipmaker has also reinvented the PC with lightweight and powerful notebook computers called ultrabooks. The long time technology bellwether is clearly in an overdrive to tap the Indian market, both in terms of business opportunity and utilising the talent pool available for developing next generation products for the global market
If there?s one thing Gregory Bryant has learned in his four years at Intel Asia Pacific?first as vice-president of the Sales and Marketing Group, Lenovo Account and more recently as the Asia Pacific head of sales and marketing? it?s that the Indian consumer never ceases in his demands for easier and more-flexible access to computing. ?Like the developed economies, people in India look for convenience and portability along with high performance computing and entertainment capabilities,? says the vice-president, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel Asia Pacific. Now, with a flood of new mobile devices hitting the market, Bryant?s opportunities to meet these demands have never been more challenging ?or more bountiful and promising.
India is slated to move to No 5 spot worldwide in terms of total PC addressable market by 2016. It is forecasted by Gartner that PC shipments in India would reach 12.5 million units in 2012, a 17% increase over 2011. This is a testament to the growth that is expected going forward. ?From an Intel standpoint, our goal is very clear, to make India the leading emerging market,? says Bryant.
There are currently a 100 million internet users and this number is expected to touch 203 million by 2015. India is also the second fastest growing smartphone market after China. As per IDC, the smartphone opportunity in India for 2012 stands at 19.1 million units, which is a 78% growth year on year over 2011.
?All this augurs well for the Intel?s business in India as we continue to bring the latest and the greatest of our technology to the Indian consumers and in time to market with the rest of the world. In fact, Intel launched the first smartphone Xolo X900, based on Intel architecture in India given the importance of the market,? says Bryant. ?India continues to be an integral part of Intel?s growth plans and we continue to invest heavily in this market,? he adds.
A brief recap: India is Intel?s largest non-manufacturing site outside of the US and considered a microcosm of Intel with the presence of major business groups. Having started its sales office in 1988 and its research & development activities in 1999, Intel India has grown from less than 200 employees in 2,000 to over 3,200 employees. It also has Intel Mobile Communications (Infineon?s Wireless division that got acquired by Intel) and McAfee India which continue to be run as separate entities.
The $54-billion long-time technology bellwether has now rolled out an aggressive strategy to tap the Indian market, both in terms of business opportunity as well as utilise the talent pool available for development of products. Debjani Ghosh, managing director?Sales & Marketing Group, Intel South Asia says, ?Our goal in India is to extend our computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every Indian. For that, we have embarked on a four-pronged strategy: drive higher PC penetration with focus on end user benefits and end user education on how the PC can impact livelihood; reinvent the PC with the Intel ultrabook; capitalise on datacentre and internet growth in India; bring the best of Intel technologies to phones and tablets.?
Over the years, Intel has been listening more and more actively to its consumers in terms of their needs, their desires and their expectations from technology. Ultrabooks is a classic example of bringing to market what consumers want from their portable devices. Conceived by Intel just over a year ago, the ultrabook category has been quickly embraced by the industry. More than 20 systems have been introduced globally since October 2011, and today momentum is growing with more than 115 3rd Generation Intel Core processor-based ultrabook devices under development.
In addition to increased responsiveness and enhanced security features, ultrabook devices powered by the new 3rd generation Intel Core processors deliver up to two times the media and graphics performance compared to the previous generation, long battery life and offer more choice of stylish, thin designs. Bryant informs that in the coming months, several versions of the 3rd Generation Intel Core processors will be powering a range of other devices from standard PCs, ultraboks to servers and intelligent systems in retail, healthcare and other industries thereby truly ushering in a new era in computing.
Intel?s Bangalore-based development centre is also humming right along. Intel India Development Centre (IIDC), started in 1998, is focused on three areas, contributing to global products locally, creating Intel Architecture based technology solutions for the local market that can also be used by other emerging geographies and looking at futuristic stuff through Intel Labs.
In the last eight years, Intel India has made significant contributions through its engineering capability in silicon design, validation and systems software to four generations of Intel Xeon Server products (Tigerton, Dunnington, Nehalem-EX and Westmere-EX) and seven generations of client graphics (Core) products?Alviso, Calistoga, Crestline, Cantiga, IronLake, SandyBridge and IvyBridge?and besides MID Input Output Hub like Langwell and ultra-mobile SoC called Penwell. Intel India also had a significant role to play in the design and development of the fully functional reference design of the Xolo X900, the first smartphone with Intel Inside.
Intel is working on future technologies that could let people engage more naturally and intuitively with a variety of devices, from the ultrabook or smartphone to everyday intelligent systems. Such applications could include perceptual computing, intuitive and immersive short-range gesture recognition, using smartphones to interact with and control an ultrabook or desktop PC, or even track a person?s heart rate through technology that ?sees? and analyses the movement of a person?s cheeks.
There is no doubt that innovation in the computing space is unprecedented. And in the Intel labs located in India?s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, and elsewhere, new experiences are being imagined all the time.
