Intel announcements put desktop, notebook buys on hold

CHIP GIANT Intel made so many "compelling" and "innovative" announcements at last week's Developer Forum that there's a distinct possibility it may have shot itself in the foot.

From "guerilla" benchmarketing to strange screens showing quad core gaming machines, it will now have to take the hit on showing that. After all, it seems it can beat AMD on the gaming front without exercising its biceps too much.

There are a few caveats to be entered, however. First of all, however well Intel is doing on the process front, and we have every reason to believe it's doing as well as we expected, we remain unsure how fast INTC can push these products through the channel so it's a bit like the old days.

In the old days, AMD would introduce chips at Computex to tickle the fancy of hacks and to test the resolve of its major competitor. This year looks like it will be a re-run of the old days and the world+dog will never forget that August is the busiest month of the year for PC manufacturers and the channel - so June and July are prime presentation and selling seasons.

Which is why it all gets curioser and curioser. The curious thing being that by pre-announcing benchmarks and plans for McConroe, Merom and Woodcrest at a March IDF, Intel now has to persuade the world+dog to buy the chips it already has available. Would a corporation, knowing now what it knows, plump to buy gazillions of desktops and notebooks when there is so much more coming later?

On this Intel was remarkably silent. Perhaps it just wanted to wave its bigness around to convince its shareholders that it really has got something worth waiting for. Not that Wall Street was affected. The day after its keynote announcements last Tuesday, INTC stock fell below $20. In the meantime, and to the best of our knowledge so far, AMD is not going to hang around for the better chips but is going to sell, sell, and sell again.

As we reported in February, Intel is attempting to sell its desktop chips on a rebate basis but we don't know how well that is going to succeed, seeing as the next "official" price cuts are a little while off for both desktops and for Yonahs.

It's all very puzzling and Intel did nothing last week to give any reason for its odd actions. Now that AMD has momentum on the server front, we suspect it will start biting Intel on the other fronts too. There's still a lot for Intel to do to persuade the market it has what it takes in the short to medium term. µ