White Books: One Size Fits All

Intel hopes its recently announced Interchangeability Initiative (III) for white books swells to the same-size wave it surfed so well in both the white-box desktop and server markets.

But given the complexity of notebook technology and design, along with their rapid commoditization, it's not clear if Intel will be able to hang ten on this particular breaker, industry observers warn.

And if ever the giant chipmaker needs to surf a wave right up onto the beach, it's now. Last month, the company reported reduced earnings for its first fiscal quarter, largely due to a slowdown in PC sales and stiffer-than-expected competition from archrival AMD. The company also cautioned Wall Street that it expects PC growth for the upcoming year to be 7 to 9 percent and not the 10 to 12 percent it had forecast earlier.

Still, Intel believes the stars are aligning for it to again replicate its white-box success: It has gathered the support of the three largest original design manufacturers (ODMs)--Asus, Compal and Quanta--to support the III spec . Notebooks remain the fastest-growing PC segment, fueled by both small and large companies' using them to replace aging desktop systems and a quicker, more cost-effective way of delivering innovation to the market compared with the much larger makers of branded notebooks.

Intel has made it clear that it will rely heavily on the channel to succeed in this latest initiative, one it believes the channel is particularly well-suited for.

"Our feeling is that the channel does really well when the natural order of things calls for the ecosystem to develop and deliver common building blocks," says Steve Dallman, Intel's director of channel sales and marketing. "This sort of standard drives volumes, which, in turn, improve costs and further drive services."

Intel believes III's common building blocks, along with specified products from seven major component categories--battery, hard drive, keyboard, monitor, shell and DVD-ROM--offer smaller integrators and solution providers a more level playing field to compete against the likes of Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard by significantly broadening market opportunities and lowering costs.

"I think the whole industry, from the largest tier-ones to the smallest systems builder located on a corner in Laramie, Wy., will benefit from this through better customization," Dallman says.

Because users view notebooks--much more than desktop systems--as personal pieces of equipment, Intel is hoping solution providers can deliver a wide range of technical innovations centered on "personalizing" mobile systems.

"The cool thing about this is there is so much room for innovation because notebooks can be personalized," Dallman says. "And because of the personalization factor, there will always be room for innovation and some level of customization."

NEXT: Intel wins over distributors.