A New Intel: A Review of Intel's Key Strategies

Intel represents a significant force in the semiconductor and electronics industry, from being a manufacturing powerhouse to enabling some of the most powerful computing solutions. Intel, however, has gone through significant changes since the beginning of Paul Otellini' s tenure as CEO in early 2006, including everything from reductions in the number of employees to revamping the company' s future strategies. This report evaluates Intel' s key corporate strategies through personal contact with Intel staff, ranging from manufacturing to product marketing to the CEO and other information available from Intel.

The new Intel is now focused on communications and consumer electronics. With a new class of low-power microprocessor and processor cores in SoC solutions, Intel will address markets such as set-top boxes, ultra mobile devices (UMDs), smartphones, mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and ultra mobile PCs (UMPCs). New devices will target rival offerings from vendors like ARM at less than 0.5W in average power consumption by 2009. Intel, however, faces the challenge of entering new markets and overcoming long-standing relationships and fear of its ability to dominate the market.

At the same time, Intel faces the challenge of living up to the expectations of the financial markets in both growth and margins, which are likely to prove to be the most difficult challenges.