Netbooks aren't the priority
Speaking in a conference call on Tuesday, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said
that netbooks were not a priority for Intel, and that growth in the
regular notebook market actually exceeded the growth rate of Atom-based
products.
"While Atom and Netbooks are
important growth drivers for us, our traditional notebook business
remains one of the primary drivers of revenue growth and we expect that
to continue in the future," added Otellini. He's still optimistic on
netbooks, but Intel obviously has other priorities. "The notebook
market is
alive and well and Netbooks are market-additive for Intel and the
industry."
Otellini also mentioned new thin-and-light
notebooks, based on CULV chips, pointing out that most of the units
shipped so far were powered by single core CPUs, we're guessing the
ultra popular SU3500. Things are about to change, as Intel shifts its
focus on dual-core parts and offers a bit more performance in the same,
attractive form factor.
"Late last quarter, we introduced
the dual-core version of those products. You'll see a number of laptops
show up in retail with the dual-core versions for the holiday
season...more ergonomically designed, thinner, lighter," said Otellini.
It is obvious ultrathins will benefit greatly from the extra
horsepower, as affordable dual-core parts such as the SU4100 and SU7300
start to appear in more models. However, that's not all. There's
rampant speculation that we will see the first ultrathins with ION
graphics by the holiday season. With more graphics muscle and
affordable dual-cores, they should become quite a bit more appealing to
consumers looking for primary devices, as they'll be able to cope with
a much more serious workload.