Report: Intel Monitoring Atom Popularity in China

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

Intel is reportedly watching Atom sales in China, concerned about netbook popularity in that area.

According to Digitimes’ sources, Intel has been monitoring Atom supplies and controlling availability in the Chinese market since the beginning of May. The report says Intel has even rejected orders from some China-based white-box players and that the company also closely monitoring Taiwan-based notebook makers with high inventory levels of Atom processors.

Netbook popularity is growing by the day and while some would argue that Intel should be happy the small processor is selling so well, when you take a step back, it’s easy to see why it’s all making Intel a little nervous.

With the world and its mother ponying up for netbooks and manufacturers producing netbooks with larger displays, people are starting to use the little computers as a replacement for everyday computing. Intel is no doubt worried that the Atom is going to cannibalize the sales of its more expensive Celeron, Pentium or Core processors.

According to Digitimes, Intel commented by stating that the story is unfounded and that the company does not comment on industry rumors, adding that its business model is to work with OEMs, ODMs, distributors and selected independent design houses.

Check out the full report on Digitimes.

Jane McEntegart
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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • monkeysweat
    what's wrong with that, if someone wants a cheap comp that can just go on the net & watch movies or listen to music, why not? that's 99% of what I do & would be happy with something like that.
    perhaps they should be happy they made something that could sell so well.
    Reply
  • dman3k
    Go Nvidia and Via!
    Reply
  • pug_s
    Too bad AMD can't make a competitive product otherwise they would make a killing there.
    Reply
  • tenor77
    Those little sisters love that adam.....
    wait, oh atom. man I keep getting confused.

    Intel has always made their business model off of going with high end processors to feed their R&D, and not about going with efficency on the lower end like AMD. I can see why they're worried honestly.
    Reply
  • Yea to bad Intel has been a little skittish lately its kinda funny maybe AMD is finally getting to them all in all the more competition the better. XD Go AMD!!
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    Cannibilize or not, sales are sales. If Intel is smart, they would sell volumes of Atom, and then slash prices on the higher offerings to make it more attractive.

    All Intel is doing is allowing AMD a chance to expand in China.
    Reply
  • tenor77
    eddieroolzCannibilize or not, sales are sales. If Intel is smart, they would sell volumes of Atom, and then slash prices on the higher offerings to make it more attractive.All Intel is doing is allowing AMD a chance to expand in China.

    Not necessarily always a good idea. Yes you always want to maintain market share, but as you lower prices, you have to sell more units to get the same profit. Their business model was built on the bigger processors being the meat, and these lower ends being the gravy. I'd be worried about my business model flipping because suddenly you're selling as many units or more yet making less money.

    Shareholders are such a fickle bunch.
    Reply
  • More epic fail from Intel. Bringing computing back to 2002 levels, I'm looking forward to AMD's Yukon and Congo CPUs.
    Reply
  • cruiseoveride
    VIA Nano FTW!
    Reply
  • Look at production costs THG!!!! Cannibalization of Celeron sales would not be a bad thing as the atom is what 8X smaller? so unless it is selling for 10X lower price, then it's probably not impacting profits. Obviously Core is a totally different story - and that is what Intel is worried about. The main problem Intel has with it encroaching on Celeron is that it would just be a matter of time before it moved further on up to the low end Core2's.

    Recall, Atom was never meant to be an everyday CPU, yet the fanboys seem to want to trash it. Yet noone trashes Geode, or ARM or other devices which have a specific application it is designed for. Again remember, Atom was desigend with consumer electronice, smart phones and MID's in mind - netbook was just an offshoot. Now folks are whining that a product designed for ultramobile devices is not good enough for everyday computer use.

    Given where the market is headed, I would expect Intel to 'split the Atom' - a beefed up version after the SOC design to move upstream in the netbook, CULV notebook market and a scaled back version for the intended smart phone, consumer electronic market. The only real question is are the idiot fanboys going to continue whining about HD playback on devices that have screens NOT CAPABLE of diaplying those resolutions?!?! :)
    Reply