Intel Finds Tablets Easy to Swallow
Tablets and how to respond to them. That, according to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, was “the big question on everyone’s mind” yesterday during the company’s earnings call. And he did come prepared with an answer: Tablets are just another growth opportunity for Intel, one that the company plans to take good advantage of. And while they might present something of a challenge to PC sales in the short term, in the long term, they’re just another revenue stream.
“We believe that like netbooks, tablets will expand the term for computing overall with a new form factor and new uses that bring computing to even more aspects of our lives,” Otellini said during the call. “Will they impact PC sales? Sure. At the margin, they probably will. Consumers will have a limited amount of discretionary income and some will choose to purchase a tablet instead of upgrading an existing PC or purchasing a netbook in any given period. We saw the same thing happen when netbooks were introduced, but three years later, both the PC and the netbook market segments have grown substantially and we believe that will happen again with tablets.”
Given that, what does Intel (INTC) plan to do to gain a little more presence in the category?
“We are deeply engaged with a number of partners to bring to market innovative tablet solutions,” he explained. “Our design win momentum is very strong, and in the coming months and quarters, you will see Intel solutions that run on Windows, Android and MeeGo operating systems across a variety of form factors and price points. We fully expect to participate broadly and profitably in this category, and that in the end, the tablet category will be additive to our bottom line and not take away from it.”
“We are the only architecture that runs all of the major–all but one of the major tablet operating systems, we don’t yet run on Apple,” he added. “So I think we’re in a pretty good space.”
We don’t yet run on Apple? Is that just wishful thinking or…eh, never mind.
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• Intel: Tablet Market Will Grow Between 73 Percent and 88 Percent by 2014