Chip maker Intel plans to dab its expertise on niche areas such as embedded systems in the current year, besides focusing on its all-in-one (AIO) strategy for the Indian market B. Suryanarayanan, Director – Sales, Intel South Asia, shares the company’s road map for 2013 with Durba Ghosh. Excerpts:
How did Intel do in the year gone by?
In 2012 we transited from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge, which helped us look at new opportunities, new form factors on desktop. We are now exploring niche segments like embedded systems and servers. We see channels opening up new growth segments beyond the traditional ones. On the desktop front, we are focusing on All-in-Ones (AIOs), integrated devices with all desktop components along with Wi-Fi camera and other features. Growth of AIOs has been robust at 30-33 percent compared with desktop, which has shown a slower growth. It is a big focus area for us in India and we will drive it across all segments.
With the increased market interest and growth in the AIO segment over the past few years, we feel there is a real opportunity to enable the smaller system integrators with this form factor. We plan to work with ODMs and vendors to develop system solutions that are designed around standardized components, driving manufacturing efficiencies and increasing overall volumes. Desktops still command about 48% of the total market. Specially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, there is significant demand for desktops. However, users are now looking beyond traditional desktops. All-in-one panels have an advantage there, as components can be interchanged, with standard hard drive, standard storage and standard board. We enable assemblers and system integrators to use these standard form factors. On the embedded side, we are developing some capabilities in storage, surveillance and in technologies beyond traditional PCs.
What initiatives have you taken to enable channel partners in the direction of AIOs?
In 2011, we started this new program called Intel Technology Provider program. We have over 45,000 partners in the Asia Pacific region and about 20,000 in India. We support our partners through this program to evolve their business models and to train them on new technologies. We give sales-oriented support to those who resell Intel-based hardware under another brand or sourced ODMs. We educate and train them on new products and appropriate positioning. We also train them on how to sell each of those products.
We are also looking at how we can bring in technologies like storage, solid state drives and servers together for our channels and help them take it to the market in an effective manner. We are also looking at enabling channels beyond desktops with our tech partners. Since it is an integrated tech platform that does not focus on brands, creating demand based on actual requirements becomes easier. We also help SMBs form a technological road map and guide them on what technology they should adopt, thus increasing the capabilities of our channel partners.
What is Intel’s road map for 2013?
In 2013, we will focus on increasing the capabilities of our channel partners. We want to support our partners to help them sell Intel-based products and solutions beyond PCs. Focus will also be on educating our channel partners about new technologies. We will offer training and marketing support for that. The idea is to take a leadership role in enabling the whole industry, to make available the right products, so that when a consumer is assembling [a system], he does not run into trouble.
We are working on building our server business and increasing our channel partner base. We will also come up with additional solutions on the embedded side. We identified some niche segments in 2012, and we will pin down on more this year, like high level computing. Currently, a lot of discussions are going on, as we see huge opportunity to grow in servers and embedded solutions. We are currently shipping Ivy Bridge, and we will launch our next-level microchip processor Haswell also, which will be a total technological change. We will then start training our channel partners.
