Intel's $1bn vision: one billion new PC users

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 03 May 2006 08:51

IT Industry - Strategy

Under a programme dubbed 'World Ahead' Intel has announced plans to invest more than $US1 billion over the next five years in a bid to extend PCs and broadband access to the world's next billion users while training 10 million more teachers to use computers in education.
Intel aims to achieve this ambitious goal through affordability, access and content. It intends to develop a fully-featured, low cost PCs tailored to regional needs, and to expand wireless broadband Internet access by "cultivating the required ecosystems and encouraging deployment, including the broad promotion of WiMAX trials and deployments".

Intel is also a member of the International Telecommunication Union's 'Connect the World' initiative to "connect the unconnected by 2015". Connect the World was launched in June 2005 and billed as "a multi-stakeholder partnership that is united in the objective of connecting the 800,000 villages - or 30 percent of all villages worldwide - which still lack any kind of connectivity." At the ITU's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005, partner organisations signed a pledge to make good that commitment by 2015.

Under its World Ahead programme, Intel will also be put in place initiatives to help students participate in the global economy through education programmes and resources, including professional development for teachers worldwide.

 "Decades of providing technology in growing volume and at decreasing costs have driven great gains for developing nations, communities and people worldwide, but there is still much to do," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "While affordability of PCs is crucial, the World Ahead Programme goes beyond simple cost to develop the right systems tailored to local needs, drive critical connectivity, cultivate sustainable local capabilities and provide the quality education needed to make a meaningful difference in people's lives."

Intel already has a number of developing country initiatives in place, and commercial arrangements aimed at boosting the use of wireless, particularly WiMAX throughout the Asia Pacific.

Its existing 'Discover the PC initiative' has the goal of developing full-featured, low-cost PC technology tailored for people in developing regions, and the company now plans to develop six more geographically tailored PCs designs in the next years following on the recently introduced Intel-powered Community PC in India.