Interview: Intel's Don MacDonald talks Centrino

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 26 Sep 2003 at 16:54

What is the long-term goal for Centrino? Is it always going to be a high-end segment or are you aiming to eventually absorb the whole laptop market with Centrino technology?

MacDonald: We have already got the majority of our shipments on Centrino actually. It's been a very rapid transition. Last year the Pentium 4 was the fastest shipping product from the Mobile Group in notebooks, in terms of the replacement rates for the previous products. We expected that we would get Centrino to ship more units than Pentium 4 by Q4 and we actually did that in Q3, so already we are selling more Centrinos than we are Pentium 4s. So the majority of our notebook sales use Centrino technology. Very, very strong in corporate and assembly, much more of a megaherz leaning towards in consumer channels. Nevertheless less it is already on track to involve the majority of units we ship.

In the future, what are the price points that Centrino will cover? At the moment they are not the cheapest laptops you could buy....

MacDonald: I disagree, it is already doing that today. You can buy a fully-equipped Centrino notebook for $999 - what's that £700. That's from Acer.

But that's not yet the UK picture

MacDonald: Basically there are two stories. For the first half of this year, the retail product offerings were generally very expensive, with Toshiba at $1,899 and Sony - gorgeous notebook, but - $2,199. The business offerings were much more aggressive than the consumer offerings, and I think that in consumer most manufacturers decided to make it a niche product with a high price point.

Second half of the year is very different. You've got price points at $999, $1,199, and $1,299. Even allowing for VAT, you should still be at less than £1,000 - you should be able to hit mainstream price points.

One of the neat features about Centrino is that there is nothing in the bill of materials that says you shouldn't be able to hit the same price points as you can with the Pentium 4. Pentium 4s require more cooling than the Centrino, so you save theoretically on fans and cooling costs. There is no reason why a Centrino should not be as affordable as a Pentium 4.

You could have a budget Centrino as much as a high-end, ultra-portable model?

MacDonald: In each of the market segments - a value notebook, a performance notebook - you can do that in the US today - you can go out and buy one. We certainly hope you will be able to do that through UK retail chains. Whatever you can do with Pentium 4, you are able do with Centrino systems, too.

We think the market will address that, but it takes a bit of time.

But do you see the contrast in the UK with Pentium machines? Toshiba, for example, has brought out £499 machines...

MacDonald: The actual cost of the Centrino product saves you money overall on a platform level. This is a brand new product at the very beginning of its lifecycle So if you want to introduce something along similar lines, the pricing compared to the P4 is not that dissimilar, so fingers crossed.

We certainly think it should be comparable over time.

It is a competitive market...

MacDonald: Well it is the fastest growing segment of the PC industry and everyone is chasing growth. It has become far more competitive, you've seen that with price points and promotions, and you've seen a heck of a lot more notebooks sold. It is very much a notebook world.

And how does Dothan fit into that, with its extra functionality? Will it inevitably mean a higher price?