Monday, June 9, 2003
Intel Mulls Branding for Handheld Chips
Posted by Crystal Eitle in "HARDWARE" @ 02:37 PM
"Chipmaking giant Intel is considering the creation of a separate consumer brand for processors used in portable devices as it battles Motorola for market and mind share. Intel's past marketing efforts helped establish the company as the leader in the PC chip business, in part by subsidizing the costs of each PC manufacturer's advertisements if the manufacturer used the right Intel logo and Intel's familiar jingle. Offering advertising subsidies to handheld manufacturers could prove prohibitive because the processors for such devices typically cost significantly less than those used in PCs and servers. The company's high-end 400MHz Intel PXA255 chip for handhelds sells for $39.20 apiece in 10,000-unit volumes. By contrast, Intel's PC processors range in price from $74 to $725, and its server chips can cost more than $4,000.
But the handheld market may be even more amenable to branding efforts than was the PC market, according to a customer of Intel's handheld chips. 'The impact of an ingredient brand might be more powerful for a handheld device simply because they are smaller than a PC and more personal,' said Ken Wirt, a senior vice president of sales and marketing at Palm, the market share leader in the handheld arena. Wirt acknowledged that margins for handheld devices are thinner than those for PCs, but added that the volume potential could be higher. 'This is a market that is just getting going,' said Wirt. Handheld innovator Jeff Hawkins went so far as to predict that desktop and notebook PCs eventually will become accessories to combo cell phone organizers."
That ubiquitous Intel Inside jingle... I can hear it now... "do doo do doo!" It'll be interesting to see where Intel takes its branding for handheld chips; could this mean more visibility (in terms of advertising) for Pocket PCs?
But the handheld market may be even more amenable to branding efforts than was the PC market, according to a customer of Intel's handheld chips. 'The impact of an ingredient brand might be more powerful for a handheld device simply because they are smaller than a PC and more personal,' said Ken Wirt, a senior vice president of sales and marketing at Palm, the market share leader in the handheld arena. Wirt acknowledged that margins for handheld devices are thinner than those for PCs, but added that the volume potential could be higher. 'This is a market that is just getting going,' said Wirt. Handheld innovator Jeff Hawkins went so far as to predict that desktop and notebook PCs eventually will become accessories to combo cell phone organizers."
That ubiquitous Intel Inside jingle... I can hear it now... "do doo do doo!" It'll be interesting to see where Intel takes its branding for handheld chips; could this mean more visibility (in terms of advertising) for Pocket PCs?
