New Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has spoken for the first time in his role as Intel CEO at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. He pledged that Intel will be “more responsive to customers” under his leadership and to “make adjustments in our architecture and our product choices” to focus on the end user, execution and ultra-mobile processors. Meanwhile the exiting CEO, Paul Otellini, revealed that Intel could have powered the first iPhones but costings put him off the deal, which in hindsight could have been profitable due to the scale, however “no one knew what the iPhone would do...”
Intel’s new CEO Brian Krzanich
Brian Krzanich took over as Intel’s CEO at the annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday. Krzanich has worked at Intel for 30 years, the main body of his work was in running Intel’s manufacturing plants, therefore his promotion to CEO “is seen as confirmation by the board that the company's multibillion-dollar network of cutting-edge factories still holds the key to success” reports Reuters news agency.
New Intel CEO Brian Krzanich
At the meeting Krzanich looked at where Intel has been and where it is going and had a number of things to say. Looking at Chipzilla’s recent history he admitted Intel was slow to focus on mobile processors “Yes, we missed it, we were slow to tablets and some of the mobile computing. We do believe we have a good base,” he told shareholders.
Customers and manufacturers who use Intel chips are still asking for more mobile focused and optimised parts, revealed Krzanich. “They're all showing us - here's where the market's moving and here's where we need Intel to move. We're going to make adjustments in our architecture and our product choices,” Krzanich said.
Outgoing Intel CEO Paul Otellini
Meanwhile, just before stepping down as CEO, Paul Otellini gave an interview to The Atlantic in which he revealed an interesting niggling regret. Apparently he “personally shot down the chance” to put Intel processors in the original Apple iPhone. Otellini says you could view it in two ways; Intel didn’t win it or it just passed on the chance.
Departing Intel CEO, Paul Otellini
It comes down to pricing, Intel never expected the massive volume of chips that would be sold into a successful “smartphone” launch so thought the economies of scale wouldn’t be sufficient to make the required chip profitable. “The world would have been a lot different if we'd done it,” says Otellini. He added “My gut told me to say yes”.
