Intel began its corporate sojourn manufacturing memory chips
and microprocessors. It called itself the building block supplier to the
computer then. Today, in its new avatar, Intel calls itself a building block
supplier to the Internet economy.
What a quick adoption to change! When one runs a successful
venture, the temptation to maintain the status quo is very high. It goes to the
credit of Intel's top leadership that it has not succumbed to this temptation.
Instead, Intel anticipated changes at the marketplace well in advance and
changed its focus to suit the new market demands.
The market demand of course is centered around the Net. Every
business is being looked at from the perspective of the Net, which has become
all-pervasive and is in the process of re-writing history.
E-commerce has come to reshape the way people have been
conducting business with each other. Intel has quickly grasped the business
nuances of these rapid changes and has molded its vision to suit the changing
times and remain highly competitive.
Not that the competition is anywhere close to it with any
major threats. Perhaps, from technology point of view, AMD had a slight edge
because it was the first one to break the 1 GHz barrier with Athlon. But when
every one thought that Intel had overtaken AMD with its 1.13 GHz Pentium III
processor, there was bad news from the market as the processor was found to be
flawed.
The result is that Intel had to recall all shipments of its
1.13 GHz processors while AMD is shipping the 1.10 GHz processor without any
hitch. But this could only be a passing phase because Intel has already
demonstrated a P-4 processor running at an incredible 2 GHz.
While allowing the war of technology and processor speeds to
continue, what Intel has done rather quietly is to create a separate
Communications Products Group (CPG) with the mandate of coming out with products
in line with its new vision.
CPG has been quick to grab the Net opportunity and building
blocks for the Internet economy have been coming out from its stable on a
regular basis. From a memory chips and microprocessor company few would have
expected e-commerce accelerators, gigabit switches and web-hosting appliances.
But that is exactly what Intel has done in an effort to provide intelligent
infrastructure towards e-business requirements.
Intel has offerings in convergence technologies as well. It
has come out with technology for virtual private networks, remote access
servers, router products and dialogic voice cards solutions. All these products
make it very clear that Intel wants to shed its old image and put on a new
clothing with the Internet written all over it.
Partners, of course, will have to bear with the birth pangs
of a new vision from Intel. Perhaps, the recent shortages in memory chips and
processors could be attributed to the critical changes that were happening
within Intel though Intel would put it nicely saying that it could not estimate
the demand properly!
The new vision and products from Intel augur well for
partners who need to be nimble-footed to move with the giant. When Intel changes
its focus from computer-centric to Net-centric, the partners too will have to
change their outlook to reap the benefits from a company that is perceived as
channel-friendly.
sylvesterl@cmil.com