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Intel's Community PC: Enabling IT ecosystem

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CIOL Bureau
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More than just the PC, this initiative is being targeted towards creating IT friendly ecosystem for the region. William M. Siu, vice president & general manager, Channel Platforms Group, Intel, spoke to Zia Askari about his company's strategy with regard to this offering. Excerpts from the interview:

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What is the focus for Intel as far as this 'Community PC' is concerned. There were other form factors that could have been used -- like the 'Simputer'. Why has Intel opted only for a 'PC form factor' as far as this project is concerned?

With this project we are trying to create an IT-based ecosystem that can enable the villages and its population to lead a better life. It is not about giving them a device. It is about building the overall ecosystem. We have a long-term vision. We are here to identify the needs and work with the existing social system in terms of designing services and deliver these services using technology.

We have selected the PC form factor, as we are targeting the (rural) community. All the other form factors are pretty much focused on individual users. We believe that a PC delivers an ideal form factor that can be utilized by a whole community.

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Intel is partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like HCL and Wipro for the Community PC. However, HCL has its own products that qualify to compete with the Community PC. Don't you think that there would be enough competition within OEMs like HCL to market Community PC?

There will always be competing products in a marketplace. We are trying to create opportunities not only for the rural population, but also for our OEM partners to target this vast segment. Community PC has got some unique features like its design and overall look and feel. This product is consciously designed keeping in mind the harsh conditions of rural areas.

This sturdy PC can work in temperatures of up to 50 degree Celsius and can even run on a battery that can be charged by pedaling (as in a bicycle dynamo) and other means. The battery works as a back up in areas where power supply is erratic. The PC can also operate in high dust environment and in surroundings, where there are lot of insects.

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This India-specific platform was developed after taking into consideration the problems faced by a typical Indian villager - frequent power failure, dust, humidity and varying temperatures.

To make the PC attractive to lenders or Banks, the platform comes with a certificate-based access through a 30-digit code, this feature will allow banks to verify the validity of installment payments against the purchase of the PC.

Is Intel looking at increasing the number of partners — both the OEMs and the solution providers - for this project within India?

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As of now we have partners like HCL, Wipro, Microsoft, Red Hat, NIIT, Yahoo India, etc. As we move forward, we are looking at increasing this ecosystem considerably. We are already engaged in talks with other OEMs in order to partner with them for this project.

We have identified certain key areas like healthcare, education, agriculture and trading. Moving forward we are looking forward to partnering with local ISVs and other solution providers in order to develop localized content for this project.

Are you looking at taking the Community PC model outside India?

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This product originated within India, keeping in mind some of the unique problems or challenges that we have in this country. However, there are other regions globally like Africa, China or Latin America where there are almost similar challenges. So we would certainly like to take this project beyond the Indian borders in future. We would be looking at countries like China, the African region and Latin America.

What is the price point that Intel is looking at for the community PC? What sort of revenue model does Intel has for this project?

The pricing for this product primarily depends on our OEM partners because they are the ones who will decide on the end user price. However, keeping in mind the price sensitive Indian market, we would surely want this to be competitively priced in this geography.

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We have our regular revenue model, which involves selling the chipset and the CPU. So all these PCs will have our chipsets and the CPU.

What makes you think that an offering like this will change the lives in rural India? When it comes to rural India — there is a lot, which needs to be done on the connectivity front. How do you plan to tackle this roadblock?

This initiative is directed towards IT-enabling the community in general. So the idea is to arm them with information that is necessary for them; it can be healthcare information or critical information about agriculture issues.

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The government of India has already announced its plan to have 100,000 Common Service Centers by August 2007. So we certainly think that this is a product, which is ideally placed for such initiatives.

The government of India has also announced its plans to connect villages with the help of SWAN (Statewide area networks). We are involved in some pilots (in Karnataka and Uttaranchal) wherein we are trying to provide connectivity with the help of WiMax technology to rural areas. We are trying to build low-cost networks that can support this initiative. We are also partnering with telecom service providers like Reliance and Tata to provide connectivity.

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