Sales chief Amar Babu calls it "one of our best years in India". Which reflects the market of 2004-05: PC and server growth, and a mobility jump. With nine-tenths of the pie in its kitty for those areas, the market's fortunes are Intel's.  

With around 90% share of system shipments, Intel's revenue growth was helped by better high-end chip sales for both servers and PCs. And the mobility and wireless boom: the Centrino wireless platform helped ensure that revenues from the mobility arena grew 150%. OEM vendors HCL, Zenith and Wipro launched their own laptops. In January 2005, Intel upgraded its Centrino mobile platform with Sonoma.

HIGHLIGHTS Upcountry and SEC-B/C consumer thrust Jump in mobility and motherboard sales New campus in Bangalore Overwhelming share, brand strength Strong channel network Wide portfolio from handheld to server Desktop gaps remain: entry offerings, and top end (no true-64 plans) Maxed-out market share: quantum growth needs major market development l Start-up Year: 1988 l Address: 136 Airport Road, Bangalore-560017 l Tel: 25075000, 25202460 l Website: www.intel.com

The June 2004 launch of Grantsdale nudged up desktop revenues a bit, powering high-end EPCs. Over the year Intel brought in 64-bit extensions (EM64T) across all desktop and server CPUs.

The server story was about the high end, with Xeon and Itanium multi-CPU systems getting a boost. New SAP projects in manufacturing-a traditionally weak area for Intel-helped in a revenue share gain in servers from around 50% to over 53%.

Other product areas included motherboards, which nearly doubled in revenues, and the Dialogic voice cards, which powered Airtel ringtones, the new KBC show, and various call centers.

Intel's big market development was 'Parivartan', a program to boost desirability for PCs among SEC-B/C consumers through events and vernacular media. Parivartan won a global Intel award. The 2005 plan: an SMB thrust.

Intel India president Ketan Sampat says two key programs for future growth were around PC financing, and a broadband and data services push. Intel "worked with the eco system"-signing agreements with SIDBI to bring financing for IT to SMEs, and driving PC-broadband or CDMA wireless bundles along with BSNL, Reliance and others. Intel also brought its global PC program for financing and training for government employees and teachers.

Its education program continued, and Intel Capital invested $10 mn in NIIT, aimed at pushing up computer-aided in schools.

At Intel's development center, a new microprocessor test lab, circuits research lab and systems technology lab were the highlights. It's been a strong year for Intel India, as it moves ahead to evaluate a chip test facility in India in 2005-06.