Intel goes for five way reorganisation

By Steve Malone

Posted on 18 Jan 2005 at 10:23

Chip giant Intel is to reorganise itself in a bid to be more responsive and put what has been a terrible year behind it.

The company has split its massive chip division and the smaller communication division into five new business units based around 'platforms'. Each division will be charged with creating complete technology solutions in each field.

In a statement, the company said, 'The platform-based organizations also reflect the ongoing convergence of computing and communications by incorporating both capabilities across the new groups.'

Three of the five groups are based on familiar Intel markets of business, home and mobile. The Mobility group will create platforms for notebooks PDAs and mobile phones as well as develop better integration between them, the Digital Home focussing on entertainment and consumer electronics, Digital Enterprise to concentrate on business solutions.

The two others are the Channel Products Group which will develop and create new products for new markets worldwide and perhaps surprisingly a Digital Health Group which will look into developing Intel architecture products for the booming medical equipment market currently dominated by the likes of Hewlett Packard.

The reorganisation is a development of the strategy pioneered by the group charged with building the market for Centrino in 2003. Then, the group managed the processor, the related chipsets and software in a single coherent entity. The success of Centrino has encouraged CEO-designate Paul Otellini to repeat the trick across all its business units.