Intel’s Chief Marketing Officer Eric B. Kim and CEO Paul S. Otellini are planning a sharp departure for Intel. Essentially, they are planning to blow up Intel’s brand, the fifth-best-known in the world, according to BusinessWeek. Kim and Otellini are planning to do away with Intel Inside, the Pentium brand, and the widely recognized dropped “e” in Intel’s corporate logo. Former Intel CEO Andy Grove approves, saying that the plan, “strikes me as one of the best manifestations incorporating Intel values of risk-taking, discipline, and results orientation I have ever seen here. I, for one, fully support it,” according to BusinessWeek. “Otellini will unveil the new strategy and new products on Jan. 5, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Central to the effort will be the first new corporate logo in more than three decades and a $2.5 billion advertising and marketing blitz, BusinessWeek has learned.”
“Otellini will unveil the new Intel during his keynote speech. It starts with a whole new look for the 37-year-old company. The Intel Inside logo will disappear, replaced by an updated Intel logo with a swirl around it to signify movement. For the first time since the early 1990s, the company will add a tagline: ‘Leap ahead,'” BusinessWeek reports. “Meantime, the famous Pentium brand will be slowly phased out. In its place: a troika of brands, two of them freshly minted. Viiv (rhymes with “alive”) is the name of a new chip for home PCS, designed to replace your TiVo, stereo, and, potentially, cable or satellite set-top box. It will be able to download first-run movies, music, and games, and shift them around the home. Intel also will launch a set of notebook PC chips under the three-year-old Centrino brand, as well as so-called dual-core chips, which will put two processor cores on one sliver of silicon. The new brand ‘Core’ will be put on products that don’t meet the specifications of the Viiv or Centrino platforms. The effort is winning high-profile support. On Jan. 10, Apple Computer Inc., which has never used Intel’s chips before, is expected to be one of the first companies to offer products with the dual-core chips.”
“Otellini’s Digital Home team has struck some of the biggest content deals to date with major Hollywood players and music services to entice both customers and consumers to the Viiv platform. The hundreds of millions it will dole out for marketing Viiv has partners like Sony and Philips Electronics (PHG ) salivating,” BusinessWeek reports. “Otellini also has gone to great lengths to win over marketing maestro Steve Jobs. It’s quite a reversal. For years, [former CEOs] Grove and Barrett pooh-poohed Apple as a niche company whose products had sleek form, but nowhere near the function of computers with Intel’s chips. Yet Otellini set about wooing Jobs almost from the start. In June, a month after Otellini took over, the two companies announced Apple would begin shipping Macs and other products with Intel chips inside in 2006. Otellini aims to use the Apple relationship to force PC makers to step up their innovation. ‘They’ve always been a front-runner in design,’ he says. ‘As they start taking advantage of some of our lower-power products, that form factor will improve significantly. I think it will help drive a trend toward smaller, cheaper, cooler.’ Jobs’s influence extends beyond design. At Otellini’s urging, Apple’s ‘Think Different’ vernacular is beginning to take root inside Intel. The two chief executives also appear to be developing a real friendship. Intel insiders say they talk regularly. And when Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, visited Silicon Valley in late November, Jobs and Otellini were side by side, hobnobbing with the royals.”
BusinessWeek reports, “Meantime, Intel execs seem open to easing their once ironclad ties to Microsoft. At the start, PC makers will have to use Microsoft’s Windows Media Center Edition operating system to earn the Viiv brand — and Intel’s co-marketing dollars. But Intel says this may not continue, opening the door to Viiv machines with the Linux open-source operating system or even Apple’s. Indeed, Kim says he expects some PC companies to ship Viiv boxes, without Windows.”
There’s a wealth of more information in the full article here.
See Intel’s new logos here.
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Related article:
Intel CEO Ottellini: Apple will bring us innovation, uniqueness, leading design – December 30, 2005
Yay for 2006!
i love this move. i was a little skeptical of the switch at first, but it seems like intel wants to be the company in the semiconductor industry that operates like apple does in the personal computer industry-vibrant, willing to change, and willing to take chances. it looks like a great move more and more each day.
this has me so nervous & excited @ the same time it’s not even funny.
I wish I wish I wish I had purchased more Apple stock 3 years ago.
Still…
I didn’t do all that badly!
Lost Budgie Blog
“Meantime, Intel execs seem open to easing their once ironclad ties to Microsoft. At the start, PC makers will have to use Microsoft’s Windows Media Center Edition operating system to earn the Viiv brand — and Intel’s co-marketing dollars. But Intel says this may not continue, opening the door to Viiv machines with the Linux open-source operating system or even Apple’s. Indeed, Kim says he expects some PC companies to ship Viiv boxes, without Windows.”
Nobody likes a bully. Even Intel was bullied by Gates, who feared the lack of backwards compatibility. This prevented Intel from doing what it CAN do, and that is innovate.
Otellini isn’t afraid of Gates, and has demonstrated his willingness to buck his demands.
Dell ships Linux and has stated he’d like to ship OSX. Otellini specifically wooed Jobs and Apple’s business.
One time allies are now turning their cheek to MSFT.
How long can the bully remain on top, when he has no friends to support him?
Holy Cannoli, Batman.
Looks like Apple and Intel will leap ahead of the PC crowd.
I feel the love.
I’m not sure about that new logo. The curves in the i and L make the whole word seem to sit on a wavering line–not solid. But all of this stuff together makes Intel sound a lot less like a lumbering dinosaur of a corporation.
Logos still have that cheap Wintel look!
This reinforces what I have been thinking since Otellini was on stage talking about the decision Apple made to move to Intel processors.
To me when Otellini spoke he repeatedly mentioned that the partnership would mean that together Apple and Intel could innovate.
As mentioned above, Microsoft heavied Intel to ensure their was legacy support, meaning for Intel they couldn’t jettison previous features and INVENT ebven better solutions, they could only try and IMPROVE later iterations of those technologies.
I agree that AMD have been kicking Intel’s butt recently, but I also believe that the partnership with Apple will allow Intel to “let loose” their obviously intelligent and talented engineers etc and INNOVATE again, Think Different perhaps?
Despite the dog that Netburst was, you would be a FOOL to suggest that Intel haven’t developed some increadibly brilliant microprocessor technologies.
I really think that with Apple as a customer, they will be able to show the world what they are really capable of.
You see Microsoft may insist on bacwards compatibility, but after a few years of people having an Apple Mac, running OS X, do you REALLY think Steve and Apple will care if they end up with a chip design that DOESN’T support Windows.
They have always said, if the customer WANTS to install Windows they can, but they WILL NOT support that.
I know it is a pipe dream, but could a possible game plan look something like this?
1) x86 architecture Macs that can run Windows
2) Customers start REALLY considering and buying Macs, as they have the “it can also run Windows” safety net
3) Apple AND Intel really work hard at the developers, ensuring they develop native Mac OS X software
4) a few years down the track Intel and Apple co-develop a new microprocessor, which is FINALLY free of the legacy requirements of Windows
5) Apple release this and customers don’t care, because apart from the safety net, they rarely IF EVER use Windows anymore (except to show their kids how much computing used to SUCK!), and devlopers are writing software for OS X, so they wont lose out on software titles anyway
This was quickly posted, so not REALLY thought out, but you get the general idea.
my 2 cents
Luke
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I wonder if Intel’s dropping of “Intel Inside” might be a face-saving move because they knew Apple wasn’t going to put those stickers on the new Mac’s?
I’m just saying.
Otellini’s “happy” spin scares me. Sounds too much like Carly’s revolution at HP, and we know how THAT turned out.
Luke:
I’m sure we’ll se all of the above, in some form or another. But the only gameplan that means anything to Apple right now is:
6) Apple getting access to all that video content that Intel has scared up, and incorporating it into their own products.
“Otellini’s Digital Home team has struck some of the biggest content deals to date with major Hollywood players and music services …” That, and maybe Ortellini stroking Jobs’ ego, it the fulcrum that got Apple moving Intel’s way.
And Apple IS moving Intel’s way, not vise versa. Just look at the phrasing of the BusinessWeek report:
“Otellini also has gone to great lengths to win over marketing maestro Steve Jobs.”
As if that’s the primary thing Jobs brings to the relationship.
“It’s quite a reversal. For years, [former CEOs] Grove and Barrett pooh-poohed Apple as a niche company whose products had sleek form, but nowhere near the function of computers with Intel’s chips.”
We all know how false that assertion was/is, but the important point is how prejudiced that sort of ingrained idea is, and how non-trivial it has to be to irradicate it from the company entirely, regardless of Ortellini wants.
“Otellini aims to use the Apple relationship to force PC makers to step up their innovation. ‘They’ve always been a front-runner in design,’ he says. ‘As they start taking advantage of some of our lower-power products, that form factor will improve significantly.”
Um, just how is the Mac form factor suffering now exactly? Is there another desktop as thin and elegant as the iMac? How many 15″ and 17″ ‘full boat’ laptops are as svelt as the current PowerBooks are? I’m not really trying to make a case for PPC here, only that this seems a self serving statement at best. Plus, the entire jist of the quote is ‘what Apple can do for us’ (meaning Intel and OTHER PC MANUFACTURERS) – there’s nary a word regarding how Apple will benefit.
Oh, as an aside:
“Yet Otellini set about wooing Jobs almost from the start.”
That sort of puts the kibosh on the recent theory that Jobs was going to do this 5 years ago. Frankly, I’m not surprised – there was no iPod/iTMS phenomenon, nor a glimmer of what could happen in the video realm yet. Without the latter Intel offered Apple little then. About the same situation as today.
Anyway, I want this to work – honestly. I’m way too invested in a ‘Mac Way of Life’ for me to contemplate anything less. But, obviously, I just can’t shake my doubts … not yet anyway.
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They should’ve kerned the ‘t’ better on their logo.
Apple jobs out motherboard design to Intel.
Intel jobs out branding and promotion to Apple.
Apple builds revolutionary media distribution infrastructure.
Intel builds enabling silicon based hardware.
Apple licenses embedded version of OS-X to Intel to make Viiv alive.
Intel makes a ton of money.
Apple comes out with a mountain of awesome, reasonably priced software.
Microsoft announces Vista roll-out has been moved back to 2009 to coincide with end of analog TV broadcasting.
Intel makes a ton of money. Apple makes a ton of money.
Microsoft buys Adobe and rebrands CS as MS innovation.
Intel announces the “end of the PC and OS” with appliances that just work!
Apple does the software for new Intel appliances.
Microsoft announces X-Box 180 a new video gaming system designed to run on Windows PCs.
Intel buys AMD. Apple buys Sony. Microsoft buys Atari.
Steve Ballmer found dead, apparently killed by group of young male sex partners.
IBM buys Microsoft and fires Bill Gates.
Michael Dell retires after losing most of his fortune trying to keep ailing PC manufacturing business going.
AAPL stock holders make a fortune.
Steve Jobs has the last laugh!
Jobs, heard on the phone to Intel, “…and fix that stupid “e”!”
The reality of it is that AMD will probably spank that logo crooked again.
“Intel is expected to announce next week that several hundred computer companies will build systems based on Core chips.”
NY Times
I’ve heard this a lot now. ‘What does Apple get out of this deal? Intel is getting this and this’. Well, I know what Apple ISN’T getting out of this, and thats a bad name. They are getting MORE of a name, which is EXACTLY what the company needs right now. C’mon people, you ever try talking to a PC person about a Mac? You hear all the rumors and myths they throw at you in defence to their ailing windows box? The publicity, the new innovation, and Apple getting a lot of the credit for intels new innovations. I see that as a huge gain, and will lead to more financial gain, as well as better computers in the future.
Dell, HP and others have gotten a free ride because the hardware was perceived to be so different. Sure, Intel is using Apple to help them compete against AMD. But Apple will win big in this deal because no amount of flashing LED lights on a typical Dell tower will make their products look cool compared to whatever Jobs & Company will introduce.
More and more people will see the truth that Windows is just not the OS that OSX is. Hopefully the IT geeks at major companies will begin to consider major orders of the new Intel-based Macs.
“I know what Apple ISN’T getting out of this, and thats a bad name. They are getting MORE of a name, which is EXACTLY what the company needs right now. C’mon people, you ever try talking to a PC person about a Mac? You hear all the rumors and myths they throw at you in defence to their ailing windows box? The publicity, the new innovation, and Apple getting a lot of the credit for intels new innovations. I see that as a huge gain, and will lead to more financial gain, as well as better computers in the future.
MacTypeDude,
Last I saw, Apple’s name was the best in the biz. They don need intel for that. I know alot of windoze users, dozens, and they never say “X86” when the subject of whynotapple? comes up. They say “windows” … as in they feel they can’t live without it. Crazy – yup. But they know Mac isn’t what they’re used to, & that’s enough for them (an then there’s the hard cases who claim windoze is “great”, mac “sucks” – like I said, crazy.)
Point is, anyone I know who actually cares about processors, wants AMD. Pentium in alll its flavors is looked at skeptically.
Oh, & one last thing. Intel will never let anyone take credit for their CPUS (or other innovations) but them.
I mean, it may all be cool for other reasons but not the ones you give. I can see valid reasons why it might not be tho. xrss fingers.
All good things.
Operation New Logo. That’s pretty groundbreaking, yeah
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Looking at iMacs, iPods, et all, maybe they could have kept the ‘Intel Inside’ logo for Apples products if they’d just spelt it ‘iNtel iNside’ ?
Apple do seem to have the ‘lower case/upper case’ thing going on with the first two letters of their product names.
But then, two years down the line, Microsoft will be releasing the ‘vIsta’ version of ‘wIndows’…
like it.
check
get a life, people … and
get me an Apple Powerbook Core!
2006 rocks!!
well that’s good news..it would have been difficult to break my kids of singing “we really suck” everytime the 4 note Intel ‘jingle’ played at the end of commercials..
Look people, those stickers they plaster all over PC’s are really easy to peal off and the glue is easy to clean up.
Don’t worry about them.