14 DAY TRIAL // The strong impact Intel's Atom platform had on the low-power ultraportable market received fast responses from other manufacturers, mainly from VIA with its Nano chip, and AMD with the rumored 1GHz processor. The Atom, however, managed to impress the makers of industrial PCs (IPCs). Since the platform went under $100, the suspected influence is still available, but IPC manufacturers say that they will be little affected by it, though it will have serious consequences on the market.
The opinions in the IPC makers area are divided in regards to Atom's future influence on them. A few IPC manufacturers have already announced their interest in the use of the platform for system integrator or international trader market segments, since the low price is more important than customization or flexibility. Yet, the segments that would adopt Atom may face difficulties later on, based on the presumption that Intel would give only a lower than average life-cycle for the platform.
On the other hand, IPCs rely heavily on customization, so Intel's Atom loses ground in favor of specialized companies capable of adding extra features and task-specific tweaks to their products. This situation adds fuel to the sayings that the platform will only have a minor impact on the industrial PC segment.
Atom has almost conquered the business low-cost desktop market, with a large number of units already sold. Systems similar to MSI's Wind Desktop are expected to have an excellent evolution on this market. The platform also had a great entrance in the ultra-portable notebook area, although competitors popped up almost instantly, and we've already talked about the products VIA and Qualcomm have in store, not to mention AMD. Still, Atom lives up to the expectations, and more and more players in the netbook industry adopt it for their machines.