14 DAY TRIAL // Intel, the world's leading vendor of computer processors, believes that the PC market is likely to see a considerable growth in the years ahead, similar to the growth that was recorded in the phone market due to the introduction of mobile phones, a company executive says.
According to Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group, cited in a recent news-article on PC World, PCs are becoming personalized devices, much like mobile phones, which is why he believes that the PC market will likely grow, in the same manner that the phone market has grown. “It could be a notebook or a netbook or a mobile Internet device (MID),” Eden says.
He then explains that the business of selling PCs has become a 'consumer game', noting that vendors now need to focus on both the elegance and sleekness of the device, as well as on its performance and other specifications. He also talks about the 'desirability' of computers, saying that in markets where affordability isn't an issue PCs have to have content, user interface and applications that the end user can relate to.
As the article points out, this view isn't as realistic for the emerging markets as it is for the mature ones. For example, in markets like India the price of the ideal system should be around 10,000 rupees (US$200). This is a segment where netbooks fit best, considering their low prices, but the majority of such systems currently available on the market come with prices above the US$200 tag. However, Eden points out that the prices of netbooks are likely to go down because of economies of scale, but he doesn't provide a forecast as to when he expects prices to come down.
Most of today's netbooks, as Eden points out, are sold in mature markets, although the chip maker initially targeted the Atom processor for the emerging ones.