Intel Tries to Find a Foothold Beyond PCs
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For the last several months, Andy Bryant, the chairman of Intel, has been trying to put steel in the backs of the company's employees. At meetings, he tells them that Intel must fundamentally change even though …
Context & Ripple Effects
Intel's search for markets beyond its core PC business follows a longer-running effort to broaden its role, including a home-market push in 2005. The company is also placing a prominent bet on television, reflected in its TV initiative earlier in April 2013.
The strategic urgency is broader than a single product: Intel has released a Hadoop distribution and is developing an architecture aimed at replacing traditional server racks, while OEMs prepare systems around pending Haswell chips. The company is trying to extend its silicon and software reach across several computing markets rather than rely solely on PC refreshes.
First-order effects
- Intel employees and product teams are being directed to treat expansion beyond PCs as a fundamental corporate priority, not a peripheral experiment.
- Intel's TV, data-analysis software and server-architecture efforts become more important tests of whether it can create demand outside the PC cycle.
Second-order effects
- PC makers refreshing their lineups around Haswell face an Intel whose investment attention is increasingly shared with non-PC products and services.
- Intel's pursuit of TV and data-center opportunities puts it in closer competition for customers and partners whose buying decisions are not organized around the traditional PC supply chain.
Third-order effects
- If Intel can translate its chip position into software, server systems and consumer services, the company would become less dependent on any single device category and more dependent on cross-market platforms.
- The pattern points to semiconductor firms seeking growth through adjacent systems and services, where product strategy must reach beyond selling components to PC manufacturers.
The trend: Intel's repositioning is part of a broader shift from PC-centered chip growth toward participation in the data center, connected consumer devices and the software layers around them.