Intel attempts to simplify CPU offering

by Scott Bicheno on 7 April 2009, 11:53

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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Any clearer?

Now we can see what Intel's trying to do here. There are so many brands, and within them so many model numbers, that even for a technology journalist, let alone your average consumer, it can be pretty difficult to make sense of it all.

But there's a danger that trying to shoehorn these diverse offerings into five broad categories, with only a few words of marketing speak to define them, risks creating the opposite effect to what is intended.

Take price, for instance. In the highly commoditised world of PC technology many people have come to assume that, broadly, you get what you pay for. Yes, prices go exponential at the enthusiast/early adopter end of the market, but it's generally safe to expect that the more you pay for a CPU the better performance it offers.

Take a look at the four star desktop CPUs: the Q9300+ series and the E8000 series. On Intel's latest price list the E8400 (two cores, 3GHz) costs $163, while the Q9650 (four cores, 3GHz) costs $316 - almost double. The explanation of why they should pay for these extra cores, that consumers will still need, will position the Quads at a different level to the Duos, risking the invalidation of the rating system.

We still think it's good that Intel is trying to help consumers understand what's on offer, but we're not convinced this initiative will achieve what Intel apparently hopes it will. But what do you think? Do you like the new badges? Do you think this rating system is useful? Let us know in the HEXUS.community discussion forums.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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Soooo, the new logo is just a corner of the old logo that's been stuck on a wafer?

It does look better though…
Not too sure on the rating…..although I guess changing all the model numbers at such a late stage would be confusing and the rating system isn't a bad compromise.


I hope they learn from this and come up with a more intuitive naming scheme going forward.

Badges do look nice though.
Good idea for here and now. But what happens when new processors are released and formerly high end rated chips become less high end? If they'd just used a number of stars without the white ones giving it an ‘out of’ measure it would have worked.
The thing that leaps out at me is how much they're pushing “Core” as the brand - the 2 and i7 distinguishers are barely noticable in comparison, and “Extreme”, “Quad” and “Duo” are also very understated. Presumably Intel felt their brand image was being fragmented; the message here seems to be that the Core i7, Core 2 Quad / Extreme and Core 2 Duo / Extreme are all part of the same family of “Core” processors, not distinct families.

Label colours are interesting too: the Desktop system seems to work well, with the extreme editions in black at the top of the chart, the mainstream in Blue and the budget parts down at the bottom in white. By comparison, the laptop market seems confused, with all the different colours mixing at all levels - I personally wouldn't have used the slivery / white for Centrino as it is very similar to the plain white for Pentium / Celeron, and gives the impression that these are low-end parts, when some of them are in the highest performance bracket!

I'm interested that Intel feel this is a worthwhile use of resources though, given the huge market inertia in their favour - it suggests that they are starting to get worried about market share…
i want one :(
only bought my i7 a month ago and i have to make do with a boring old normal sticker :(