Intel's Classmate: Driving HP and Dell to AMD?

Following yesterday's news of Intel Classmate low-cost laptops landing in stores in the Philippines, Intel (INTC) is saying that it will sell the $300 machines in the U.S. and Canada.

This is a weird and seemingly dangerous move for Intel. By selling its own machine, Intel is basically undermining its customers -- PC makers such as Dell (DELL) and H-P (HPQ) that buy Intel's chips. About 18 months ago, Intel exec John Davies, who runs the group that developed the Classmate, told me Intel would never sell Classmates for this very reason. Intel would only provide designs to PC makers who wanted to make Classmate-like PCs themselves.

What changed?

The Classmate even puts Intel into direct competition with companies such as Asus, which are making other low-cost laptops using Intel chips.

Comments

[steveballmer:]

Now THAT is ugly!

2008 Mar 20 10:54 AM

[Smart1:]

Intel will not sell classmates into the commercial marketplace in any meaningful way. Whoever wrote that article in the Phillipines is confused.....

2008 Mar 20 12:47 PM

[Lisa:]

If Intel sells the Classmate in the US, AMD is a buy for exactly the reason you outlined.

2008 Mar 20 06:11 PM

[Ralph F:]

What operating system does the Classmate use? The Asus Eee uses linux instead of windows. If the Classmate also uses Linux, that's also an interesting break between Intel and Microsoft.

2008 Mar 20 06:16 PM

[TeckEnki:]

The OLPC competitor is available in the US, so Intel responded. I'm sure they will just use it in competitive deals against the OLPC. Since the OLPC competes with these OEMs and uses the only other competitor, there isn't really a "non-cheap education PC processor vendor" choice for the OEMs anyways. Nothing to see here, move along.

2008 Mar 20 08:46 PM

[vaduz:]

this seems to be silly action by intel. what else is behing it?

2008 Mar 21 05:25 PM

[Sawadee:]

$300 to $400 is still a lot of money in Asia. Intel is helping the people in Asia who otherwise could not afford the computer. Now they can get on the technology band wagon. They have been left out for too long. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT?
Here in the US, it would be more of a cheap computer for the kids and not for anyone who would probably buy the real PC or Lap Top.
Again, niche marketing. Brilliant!

2008 Mar 24 01:56 PM

[TomH7259:]

My understanding, is that a computer Builder named NEO is going to market it, not intel:

www.neo.com.ph/product...

IMO, Any other computer builders wanna get in on the action, they are more than welcome.

2008 Mar 24 03:47 PM

[usearch:]

It is called hubris: To assume that clients representing virtually all of a company’s profits would not care if their vendor (Intel) competed with them - for the greatest untapped market (developing economies) on our planet Earth. It is interesting to see Intel disrespect their customers. If AMD can avoid behaving badly, we will probably start seeing more “AMD inside” from the global PC brands.

2008 Apr 10 11:56 AM