Those faster chips continued to speed things up for Intel. Even as the PC's price dropped, the processor held firm, helped by a full shift to the P4 and also the Centrino (as laptop volumes doubled). So while the PC market grew only 12% in value terms, Intel revenues from India grew at twice that.
Intel's upcountry thrust deepened across the “top 200 towns”. It worked on enhancing distributor presence, through offices and warehouses. Intel's primary engagement remains largely with its 1,800-odd GIDs (“Genuine Intel Dealers). But to reach beyond them, hundreds of smaller dealers were also trained.
Intel settled down after the loss of distributor Tech Pac (rumors hint at a patching-up) to AMD...which also took away a few points from Intel's share. Another distributor, Nebula, went into troubled waters and was acquired by eSys, who became Intel's fourth distributor, after Redington, SES and Ingram Micro.
Last year's Consumer and SMB PC awareness programs put CDMA-linked PC kiosks on the Shatabdi trains; Intel also hosted events across various locations in India. The Centrino mobile wireless was the big news globally: in fact, Wi-Fi was the major focus for Intel President Paul Otellini's visit in June 2003. But Intel India was all quiet on the wireless front-and left it to its OEMs like IBM, and operators like Bharti, to promote Wi-Fi. But it has rolled out programs such as one to “unwire 75 universities by year-end”.
Intel also sells motherboards (which grew a “lot”, but prices dropped), and Dialogic communications cards. Intel's India Development Center ramped up, ending 2003 at over 1,700 staff; it has also moved to higher-value work including design. IIDC also played a role in Centrino development and testing, apart from enterprise app areas. It filed 63 patents, and plans to move into a new 40-acre campus in Bangalore this year.
However, competitor AMD grew too, making marketshare inroads, and setting a 64-bit leadership tone-while the Itanium 64 has made slow inroads with CIOs. But the year ahead will be packed with excitement as the chipmaker embarks on a global journey from Intel inside to 'Intel everywhere', with its CTO's “vision of touching every life on the planet”.
