Intel reshape won't hit channel

Intel's restructure into five global business units -- including a new channel products group -- won't have any real effect locally, company executives said.

The chipmaker said last week it was restructuring its business into five units -- mobility, digital enterprise, digital home, digital health and channel products.

The move would help Intel take a leaf out of its Centrino book to produce and market products for specific purposes, the vendor said.

However, Andrew McLean, channel sales manager at Intel, said the change would have little impact on how the company's channel would operate in Australia and New Zealand.

"[The effect] will be fairly limited for now," he told CRN.

The restructure would aim at product development for specific platforms or needs. Centrino was a mobility-focused bundle of different technologies.

Other bundles would be produced targeting enterprise, home, health and channel needs, McLean suggested.

"Things like the digital home will more and more be a huge focus. We want to put in place the right sorts of products on the right platforms," he said.

In some ways, Intel would attack 2005 the same way it had approached last year and box builders would still be a strong focus. "We've just come out of a very successful year with local system builders and business is continuing to go very well," he said.

Intel would home in on whitebox -- particularly whitebooks. Intel's business with whitebox makers "more than doubled" in 2004 and McLean believed the chipmaker could maintain that momentum.

He also flagged Itanium servers, dual core products and upcoming Pentium 4 processors as potential earners this year.

Intel's 10-year-old channel program -- with its 1200 dealers and 3000 resellers -- was continuing to reap rewards and the channel played a crucial role for the chipmaker, which must use channels to get its products to market, McLean said.

"System builders represent over 30 percent of our business globally, and probably even more in Australia," he said.