From a marketing standpoint, releasing new products without making big announcements doesn’t seem like a smart move. When it comes to the world of technology and application deployment, however, it’s a common practice. Intel (News - Alert) is one that’s known to make consistent improvements to its technology and put the official announcement out a little later. Unorthodox, maybe, but for this technology giant, it works.
The latest in the world of Intel is that the company has made its Haswell Refresh processors and 9-series chipset-based motherboards available in retail channels, without an official announcement. Intel is expected to make the announcement in early June at Computex 2014, but the cat is apparently already out of the bag.
Reported in the DigiTimes, sources say that motherboard players have already begun distributing related CPUs and motherboards in markets such as Europe, Taiwan, Japan, China and North America. In fact, early releases went out as early as the end of April. Channel retailers argue, however, that Intel’s new platform will not help its shipments as demand from the PC DIY market is not expected to see significant growth.
Intel can snatch market share from competitors, however, which could be its primary target in this application deployment. Companies like Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology, ASRock, Micro-Star International (MSI (News - Alert)), Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) and Biostar are all expected to demonstrate their 9-series motherboards at Computex 2014.
Will Intel’s official launch shake up those competitors there and the greater PC DIY market? Without additional excitement surrounding developments there, it’s hard to say.
The good news is that this isn’t the only area of focus for Intel. The company has plans to launch its 14nm Broadwell-based desktop processors in the first quarter of 2015. Notebook processes in this same line are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2014. New products are also expected in 2015 that will replace existing Bay Trail-D series processors including Pentium J2900 and Celeron J1900/1800.
For companies like Unicom, an application deployment provider working with Intel and other leading brands, such an approach to the market simply means a unique strategy. Regardless of the market segment, Intel solutions are in demand. Unicom works with them to ensure application deployment is on or ahead of schedule to effectively meet that demand.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson