Intel Corp chief executive Andrew Grove insists that the new PowerPC computers from Apple Computer Inc are having zero market impact on Intel’s business, but the challenge from Apple is serving to spur the company on. We have done well in this business for a long time and the history of industries is filled with companies who have slowed down their aggressive pursuit in the marketplace, Grove told Reuter ahead of the annual meeting late Wednesday. The market is moving rapidly to embrace the Pentium chip one year after it was introduced, he said. While there has been speculation the high end chip might be too expensive, or face competition from the PowerPC, Grove said Intel was very pleased with growing demand from a variety of personal computer users. We’ve made our living ramping processors and we’ve never had a ramp like this, Grove said. He noted that Pentium machines are being bought by ordinary users demanding more power from their computers. The driving force of this technology is from people who are buying machines with their own money, or for their own use. It’s a sign of the maturity of the individual and a sign of the utility of the high performance computer. Repeating that Intel will continue to cut Pentium prices so that Pentium personal computer tags can be cut to the $2,000 range from about $3,000 now, Grove says he does not see any slowdown in the personal computer boom, believing the things will continue to find new users as the world moves further into the new information age. If you accept that it is heading to be the ubiquitous information appliance, then we have just begun, he said.
