One of the most important channel initiatives in recent years is Intel’s all-out assault to drive whitebook sales by standardizing notebook building blocks.
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| STEVEN BURKE Can be reached at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at sburke@cmp.com. |
The health of the system builder channel rides on making the transition to the explosive notebook game. A number of system builders say they aim to double or triple the number of whitebooks they build. There also is a significant segment of system builders waiting to see how branded giants like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo take advantage of the same Intel program before they decide to invest in building more whitebooks. Clearly, the pricing advantage those branded giants have on chips and software is a big issue. No one is saying there should be a level playing field on price given the volumes driven by the bigger players. But what Intel and Microsoft have got to start looking at is the profit margins driven by system builders vs. the big boys, which like to post large sales with little margin. The dirty secret is many direct deals are not profitable.
Intel is sensitive to partner profitability and has moved to provide some exclusive initiatives for its Premier partners. Last week, Intel even announced it is teaming up with software giant Microsoft to provide an incentive program for partners aimed at accelerating a whitebook ramp. This is no small matter. For years, Intel’s Premier partners have clamored for Intel to broker additional benefits from Microsoft. One interesting takeaway from the Intel Solutions Summit was the partner satisfaction with Intel’s partnering efforts. The same cannot be said of Microsoft. Many system builders at the show last week said they see Microsoft as arrogant and would love an alternative. Red Hat, in fact, was front and center promising an all-out channel assault at the desktop level (see story page 57).
Competition is a great motivator. Intel, for its part, has felt the AMD threat and has responded with both barrels blazing with strong channel and product initiatives. Partners say Microsoft has yet to show signs it is feeling such a threat.
What do you think of Intel and Microsoft’s partnering efforts? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at sburke@cmp.com.
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