Intel's Barrett Looks To Innovation To Ease Recession Woes

Intel

Speaking on Monday during the keynote at the Intel Developer Forum here, Barrett called on Intel's partners to continue investing in R and D despite tight economic conditions. Opportunities for growth still exist in computing and communications, he said, but companies need to focus on "advances end users can appreciate."

"We have to innovate our way out of this recession with new products and technology," he said.

Intel will spend more than $25 billion in capital expenditures this year, Barrett said. But he noted that much of the company's growth will come from outside of the United States.

About 70 percent of Intel's revenue is generated from countries other than the United States, "and we expect that number to continue to grow," he said.

Driving world technology growth is the need for countries to transition to a knowledge-based economy, Barrett said. "The opportunity for growth around the world is huge for all of us," he said. "Every government around the world recognizes that this is what they need for economic stability."

Barrett added that growth opportunities in the Internet still exist despite a period of "irrational exuberance" in the late 1990s. In addition to increasing the number of Internet users in the United States, much of the Internet infrastructure has yet to be built out overseas, he said.

Security, Web services, increased broadband penetration and wireless are other areas Barrett said will continue to provide growth in the future.

In the computing market, Barrett said, devices will continue to segment. The market now will require a number of form factors within various computer categories. In the keynote, Barrett cited the increased segmentation of servers, at one point highlighting blade, pedestal, rack-mount, carrier-grade and large SMP servers.

Barrett also said the industry needs to work to seamlessly merge computing and communications. As faster wireless services roll out in the United States, it's more important than ever to find a way to provide scalable content that can be accessed from a variety of devices, Barrett said.

"We've been talking about this for years, but we are finally getting there," he said.