Stung by the lukewarm response to its foray into ultrabooks, Intel Corp. is now gearing up for a new strategy that will involve a move to cash in on the laptop distribution schemes backed by various State Governments.
Intel Technology India, a subsidiary of Intel Corp, has started rolling out a new CPU offering that is tailor-made for the education segment.
“We see so many companies bidding for huge government orders, and we thought about how we could help them add value to this. We’re in talks with almost all of the leading OEMs right now. The whole package includes education software and a new processor,” said Suryanarayanan B, Director, Sales, Intel Technology India, in an interaction with The Hindu.
The chip manufacturer is also looking to revamp its ultrabook marketing strategy in India—a tactic born out of necessity as in the two years since the initial ultrabook launch, the company has failed to make a significant impact.
According to industry estimates, ultrabooks form less than seven per cent of global notebook sales.
In India, market watchers say that a little over 2 lakh units have been sold.
“I wouldn’t call the ultrabook a failure at all. Adoption of new form factors takes time. Also, the innovation that the ultrabook brought on has had a waterfall effect on the whole range of products,” he said.
Ultrabook’s pricing strategy
Talking about the ultrabook’s pricing strategy, Mr. Suryanarayanan said that the overall trend had slowly come downward over a period of time.
“We’ve put in a lot investment into the surrounding ecosystem to ensure better availability. We’re also increasing our focus on the retail segment while channelling our marketing efforts towards wooing the first-time buyer,” Mr. Suryanarayanan said.
