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Intel aims to launch sub $200 smartphones by later this year

Intel aims to launch sub-$200 smartphones by later this year

By Surbhi Chawla | Updated: 5 June 2012 10:33 IST

Highlights

Prashanth Adiraju of Intel shares how the company is taking the Intel Inside brand to the smartphones.

Intel had made a big splash in April with the launch of its first smartphone - XOLO X900 and it continues to make aggressive strides in this segment. Last week, Intel launched two new devices - Lenovo LePhone K800 and San Diego. San Diego is a result of Intel's partnership with Orange (a European service provider) and is expected to go on sale in United Kingdom from June 6, 2012 and will be launched in France later in the month.

NDTV Gadgets caught up with Prashanth Adiraju, Director, New Platforms & Business Group, Intel South Asia to understand the future smartphone roadmap for this company.

Q: What is the response that you have been getting for XOLO X900 so far?
Prashant: It is still too early to say but on the overall, we have been getting a lot of positive reviews and a lot of interest. What's more is that the reviews are highlighting the strength of Intel technology in these products and that is a positive sign for us.

Q: Any specific reason for choosing India to showcase your first smartphone running on the Intel chip?
Prashant: I think when you look at what is happening in the overall phone space, particularly in the smartphone arena, devices are turning out to be more of mobile computers. In India we are in the early days of that transition. If you step back a few years, first time buyers in India were buying basic or feature phones. Now they are beginning to transition into smartphones. So India is a very large opportunity. We are looking at getting into this market early and it is a very important and strategic market for us.

Q: Will you be taking the XOLO X900 into other markets as well or is this handset just for the Indian handset market?
Prashant: That is really a good question and you should be asking Lava about the same. It all depends on their international plans.

Q: There have been some questions raised about the battery performance of the XOLO X900. What are your views with regards to the same?
Prashant: From our stand point, we are not delivering leadership battery life in this kind of a product; but we are delivering what will be referred as a good enough battery life. There has always been that perception in the market that Intel architecture is very power hungry to be incorporated into a smartphone etc. I think we have busted that myth. We have been able to nail the performance in this generation of products. If you look at it, with a relatively small battery capacity, we have been able to sit within that consideration set of a lot of these smartphones.

Q: Any specific number of devices that we will be able to see from Intel by the end of this quarter?
Prashant: We have announced a partnership with Motorola, so there will be a device with them in the later part of this year. There is also a partnership in place with Lenovo and that device should be out by the end of this quarter. We have also announced a partnership with Orange, a leading service provider, which will be another one that will be coming out. And lastly, we will be coming out with a device with ZTE. So across our major markets, you will see players introducing products based on our technology this year.

Q: In the near future, can we look at Intel powering some affordable smartphones, and perhaps even budget and feature phones?
Prashant: We are designing this roadmap on the basis of two vectors. We are calling the first one as the performance vector and the second is value vector. Our objective, over the course of next few years will be to present phones in different ranges. With that intent, you have seen the first device that comes from the performance vector. We have been able to deliver best in class performance the experience as well. Whether it is in terms of browsing or graphics, we are delivering a good user experience. You will see a series of introductions over the next year and that will continue to enhance our performance story. We will get into the value mainstream space, in the latter part of this year, which essentially puts us in the volume price band. And the challenge there will be how we deliver a value product that fits within a price band that could be a little over $200 (little over Rs. 10,000 from an India stand point). We will do a series of optimisations in terms of features, performance, battery life capacity and all of those good stuff to get into that price bracket. So from a roadmap perspective, our intent is to be present top to bottom in the phone space.

Q: Will you be looking at having more devices in partnership with Lava?
Prashant: I think you should ask them this question. Our intent with the partnerships that we have done will be to create a portfolio of products across various price points. We absolutely want to be present at all relevant price points. So for example, with this product we are playing in the premium space and our intension will be to take it down to all price points that this market requires.

Q: Are you in talks with any other handsets makers in India?
Prashant: If you look at our business model, it is a horizontal business model. With this kind of model we want our technology to be adopted by various players and if you look at the local players in India they have done well. They have built their brand on the basis of basic and feature phones, our intent by using our technology and our brand will be to enable them to engage in the smartphone game. The local players have the ability not only to distribute the product in various parts of the country but also to define markets facing requirements. What I mean by markets facing requirements, is that we are bringing in a certain technology here that may help offer the best browsing experience. For a market like India, where the first internet experience for many maybe through a mobile phone, I think the local players have the ability to say how do I get the best browsing experience on a $200 phone. I think that is the partnerships that we will look to offer.

Q: Any specific names of handsets makers that you are in talks with?
Prashant: Unfortunately, I will not be able to share any specific names at this point in time.

Q: Any specific number of phones that we can expect from Intel for Indian market in this year?
Prashant: From our point, any business that we get into we would like to have a dominant position in that business. If that means that we need to have multiple products with each partner, or if that means that we have to have multiple partners, then that is what we will attempt to do.

Q: How do you see yourself vis-a-vis your competitors?
Prashant: I think from the smartphone perspective, these devices are becoming computers. I think the product strategy that we are adopting, is not just about chips and software but making these devices really have the computer experience and making sure that all the best pieces come together in a very systematic way and we have the best assets to be able to deliver that. So we are going to take advantage of all this that is available to us and putting our Intel Inside brand to be really able to go and make an impact into this space.

Q: So going forward, what can we expect from you in this coming year?
Prashant: I think this will be an interesting year for us at Intel as this is our first year in the mobile business. There will be lot of attempts of bringing in products at newer price points and fresh experiences. With XOLO we have an 8 MP camera experience that can actually take 10 pictures in a second and offer an almost SLR like experience. So these are some of the exciting features you should look forward to.

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