Intel is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company is a world leader in semiconductor chip manufacture - Intel's technologies, products and initiatives have transformed and continue to advance how people around the world live, work and play in a digital age. The company's ubiquitous microprocessors first launched in 1971 have been at the forefront of this digital revolution some 40 years on. A smart evolution is underway and Intel technologies - in 2 in 1 devices and portable all-in one computers, massive data centers, phones, tablets and the tiniest sensors - are shaping an era where everything connects and computes, from vending machines and automobiles to automated factories and cities.
Research and development is also considered an important aspect in view of building long term brand equity. Intel believes in being reactive to changes in the marketplace as a key element for sustainability. Intel invests heavily in R&D to stay one step ahead in of the competition and as a result be able to enjoy a skimming pricing strategy. The company is known for its innovation and mostly for first to market with its products that are perceived as most advanced. As a result the company enjoys a flexibility in pricing because of its economies of scale.
Utilizing the medium of this online blog, we will take stock of the strategies, successes and struggles that have shaped the firm since its inception, and in the process offer some insight into what the future might hold for the company. Let us take a good look inside!
Evolution
A brief snapshot of the evolution processors:
Corporate Identity
Mission
"This decade we will create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth."
Values
The company has 4 main core values. These are:
1. Customer orientation
2. Results orientation
3. Great place to work
4. Quality discipline
Objectives
The company espouses the following goals:
1. Grow PC and Datacenter business with new users and uses
1. Grow PC and Datacenter business with new users and uses
2. Extend Intel Solutions to win in adjacent market segments
3. Create a continuum of secure, personal computing experiences
4. Care for our people, the planet, and inspire the next generation
Intel's New Tagline
In a recent New York Times advertising column, Stuart Elliot writes about Intel's decision to "Shift its Focus to the Present". A new tagline "Look Inside" will replace the current "Sponsors of Tomorrow" after the company determined that customers are more interested in the present than the future.
Competitors
In PC/Laptop Space:
As a manufacturer of microprocessors, Intel’s fiercest competitor is AMD (American Micro Devices). In a way, Intel has been partly defined by this intense rivalry which has been a key driver for the technological advancements that it has made over the past decade - a period of immense growth in the general computing and semiconductor industry.
Both Intel and AMD were founded in the Silicon Valley, USA – Intel was started in 1968 and AMD was started a year later in 1969. They were competitors right from the start in the manufacturing of PC and server microprocessors (or Central Processing Unit) which quickly became like a commodity within a short period of time –just imagine the sheer number of electronic devices on the planet, each one of them requiring a CPU and you would quickly agree that a CPU has become sort of a commodity and a necessity.
The competition between Intel and AMD intensified especially during the 1990’s and early 2000’s as both companies competed on speed and also pricing. Some of you would remember the term “x86” which was technical jargon for a certain variant of CPU which Intel and AMD competed fiercely on, even resulting in several lawsuits between the two companies. However, Intel eventually got the upper hand over AMD by means of clever marketing with its “Intel Inside” campaign – an unprecedented marketing effort which cost Intel millions of dollars at that time. Intel concentrated on pushing its CPU’s to PC manufacturers and reimbursed them for featuring Intel CPU’s in the PC’s they made. This move was so successful that eventually consumers began to only trust PC’s which sported “Intel Inside” stickers. Today, Intel has become the default standard for any PC and laptop on the market so much so that consumers have taken for granted that Intel will be inside the gizmo they are purchasing.
Currently, Intel controls upwards of 65% of the total CPU market while AMD has about 22%. Intel has become a household brand for the mass consumer market as well as the default choice for data-center servers with its Xeon line of high powered and high durability CPU's. Just to give you an idea of how dominant Intel is in the server market - its server market share is upwards of 90% till today.
AMD, however has moved into a more specialized CPU market segment – PC gaming. As its general CPU market share plummeted against Intel, AMD shifted its focus onto gaming PC manufacturers like Alienware in order to stay in the game. AMD subsequently optimized their CPU’s to run single-threaded applications (typically video games) better than Intel’s CPU’s which were more optimized for everyday multi-tasking operations e.g. having 5 Internet browsers, 1 PowerPoint and 2 Excels at the same time. In 2006, AMD acquired advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer giant ATI. This move further strengthened AMD’s position in the PC gaming and advanced 3D graphics segment. Finally in 2013, with the emergence of console gaming as a high growth market, AMD announced a unified gaming strategy to drive the gaming market across all computing platforms. By the end of 2013, AMD registered 165% annual growth, mainly driven by the PS4 and Xbox One gaming consoles – both consoles utilize AMD CPU’s – and the advanced computer graphics segment.
However, as PC revenues decline year on year as the world moves into mobile computing applications like tablets and smartphones, Intel is beginning to set its eyes on high growth markets such as mobile and gaming – both PC and console. For instance, Intel has stepped up its efforts in recent years to debunk the notion that AMD CPU’s are better for gaming. Neutral PC enthusiasts and critics have begun to endorse certain models of Intel CPU’s as more powerful (and more expensive) alternatives of AMD CPU’s, effectively placing Intel in the “high performance, high price” sub-segment of the PC gaming market where there was no competition for AMD before. We expect that the future will hold more than a few such "one-ups" between the two giants and that their rivalry is far from over.
Both Intel and AMD were founded in the Silicon Valley, USA – Intel was started in 1968 and AMD was started a year later in 1969. They were competitors right from the start in the manufacturing of PC and server microprocessors (or Central Processing Unit) which quickly became like a commodity within a short period of time –just imagine the sheer number of electronic devices on the planet, each one of them requiring a CPU and you would quickly agree that a CPU has become sort of a commodity and a necessity.
The competition between Intel and AMD intensified especially during the 1990’s and early 2000’s as both companies competed on speed and also pricing. Some of you would remember the term “x86” which was technical jargon for a certain variant of CPU which Intel and AMD competed fiercely on, even resulting in several lawsuits between the two companies. However, Intel eventually got the upper hand over AMD by means of clever marketing with its “Intel Inside” campaign – an unprecedented marketing effort which cost Intel millions of dollars at that time. Intel concentrated on pushing its CPU’s to PC manufacturers and reimbursed them for featuring Intel CPU’s in the PC’s they made. This move was so successful that eventually consumers began to only trust PC’s which sported “Intel Inside” stickers. Today, Intel has become the default standard for any PC and laptop on the market so much so that consumers have taken for granted that Intel will be inside the gizmo they are purchasing.
Currently, Intel controls upwards of 65% of the total CPU market while AMD has about 22%. Intel has become a household brand for the mass consumer market as well as the default choice for data-center servers with its Xeon line of high powered and high durability CPU's. Just to give you an idea of how dominant Intel is in the server market - its server market share is upwards of 90% till today.
AMD, however has moved into a more specialized CPU market segment – PC gaming. As its general CPU market share plummeted against Intel, AMD shifted its focus onto gaming PC manufacturers like Alienware in order to stay in the game. AMD subsequently optimized their CPU’s to run single-threaded applications (typically video games) better than Intel’s CPU’s which were more optimized for everyday multi-tasking operations e.g. having 5 Internet browsers, 1 PowerPoint and 2 Excels at the same time. In 2006, AMD acquired advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer giant ATI. This move further strengthened AMD’s position in the PC gaming and advanced 3D graphics segment. Finally in 2013, with the emergence of console gaming as a high growth market, AMD announced a unified gaming strategy to drive the gaming market across all computing platforms. By the end of 2013, AMD registered 165% annual growth, mainly driven by the PS4 and Xbox One gaming consoles – both consoles utilize AMD CPU’s – and the advanced computer graphics segment.
However, as PC revenues decline year on year as the world moves into mobile computing applications like tablets and smartphones, Intel is beginning to set its eyes on high growth markets such as mobile and gaming – both PC and console. For instance, Intel has stepped up its efforts in recent years to debunk the notion that AMD CPU’s are better for gaming. Neutral PC enthusiasts and critics have begun to endorse certain models of Intel CPU’s as more powerful (and more expensive) alternatives of AMD CPU’s, effectively placing Intel in the “high performance, high price” sub-segment of the PC gaming market where there was no competition for AMD before. We expect that the future will hold more than a few such "one-ups" between the two giants and that their rivalry is far from over.
In Hand Phone/Tablet Space:
In recent years, Qualcomm has evolved as "THE" manufacturer of processors for smartphones/tablets and Intel has become the Lord of notebook and desktop processors with its Powerful Ivy Bridge and cheaper Intel Atom processors.
Intel plans to attack the Android market and thus the strongest competitors Qualcomm. Previously, Intel had big problem to develop processors that are on the energy consumption level of Qualcomm processors. Intel seems to have overcome these problems, as the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has an Intel dual-core processor inside. Furthermore, Intel's vision to re-create the meaning of technology is in line with the launch of its 'Make it Wearable' contest to bring the most attractive ideas to the table and eventually execute them.
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