Intel Corp’s Paul Otellini, executive vice president of Intel’s Architecture Business Group, admitted yesterday that the company had perhaps been turning technology too rapidly. Intel now realized, he said, that low-cost desktop PCs are a trend, not an aberration. Otellini said that, although Dataquest is now forecasting overall demand for PCs down about 5% from its previous estimates over the next year or so, Intel had seen a constant demand for what he called the sweet spot of PC pricing, between $1,000 and $1,300, which still accounts for around 15% of the market. Nevertheless, demand for PC desktops costing over $2,000 had dwindled rapidly, he said. Intel says it’s seen the future and it’s the internet, and has a new vision of a billion internet-connected PCs and millions of servers generating one trillion dollars of annual e-commerce revenues within the next few years. The internet is now the single most important growth driver in the computer industry [and] is as important to Intel’s future as silicon was in our past. Otellini’s next public platform could well be the Intel antitrust trial in Washington, as he and desktop products group Pat Gelsinger are down on the potential list of witnesses issued earlier this week.
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