From The Online Reporter
- Takes Direct Aim at ARM with New Atom Processors
- Microsoft, Sony Recede in Digital Media
Ten years ago, Intel, Microsoft and Sony dominated the digital market, but they don’t anymore. At CES this year Microsoft and Sony were notable only for their failure to raise even an eyelid in tablets and smart TVs.
However, Intel showed liveliness in its booth with an array of Atom processors for smart TVs, laptops/netbooks and tablets.
Microsoft’s CES booth and CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote heralded the company’s accomplishments with the widely-acclaimed Windows 7 and the hot-selling Kinect motion sensor for Xbox 360. A lengthy demonstration of a phone with WP7 was impressive but did not create a “must have” feeling. Sony was visible more for its 3D TVs and Blu-ray players than anything else. Showing how far it has fallen behind in digital media is its Qriocity online video and music service, which is available only on a few high-end Sony TV sets.
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| Intel Chip-Set |
At the front of Intel’s booth were two laptops with the new Google Chrome OS. One was unnamed, probably a prototype from Google. Boot up times took about 8-10 seconds, which includes connecting the browser to the Internet. Intel said battery usage is about 8 hours and resuming after sleep is instantaneous.
The thing to know about Chrome OS is a) the browser is the OS and the OS is the browser and b) all apps and all data are on the Internet, the cloud. There is no local storage except what’s needed for caching.
When we reviewed Chrome last month it looked like it was aimed at the corporates who want a) low-cost, trouble-free devices for their road warriors and telecommuters and b) want to keep apps and data on the IT department’s servers. Last month Google said it expects to have an offline version of Google Docs available early in 2011.
Google’s Chrome product manager, who was coincidentally visiting the Intel booth at the same time, was quick to say that consumers will be Chrome prospects too because they are rapidly moving to the cloud for data storage and apps. That’s shown by the instant and surprising popularity of tablets.
Chrome can also run on devices with ARM-designed processors, but both Chrome PCs in Intel’s booth had the company’s Atom-based processors. They would, wouldn’t they?
Not wanting to be lumped in with the notoriously underperforming netbooks, the Google executive was quick and emphatic in saying they were laptops, not netbooks. Of course Chrome OS can run on the same hardware as netbooks or even less considering they cannot have a hard disk. There’s no reason that it couldn’t be on desktops too, especially in places like businesses, schools and at medical care facilities such as hospital nursing stations.
It’ll be interesting to see how Chrome PCs are priced — our guess is that it’ll be priced pretty low — and whether they appeal to consumers.
No one is saying, at least publicly, that Chrome could give Microsoft a run for its money by replacing Windows. Windows is too firmly entrenched; there are many custom apps for it and Windows 7 has proven to be the best Windows since Windows 2000. On the other hand, Android smartphones have become as dominant as the iPhone, far exceeding even what Microsoft might dream of with Windows Phone 7 (WP7).
Microsoft provided sales figures at CES for a number of its products like Windows 7 and the Kinect motion sensor (8 million) for the Xbox 360, but none about WP7 handsets. In December Microsoft said that 1.5 million WP7 handsets had shipped, but that was to cellcos, not sales to end users. Remember that Verizon Wireless shipped all its Microsoft Kin social phones back to Microsoft a few months after it launched earlier this year?
Windows has a much tighter grip on the PC market and a much larger installed base of PCs and applications. Still, you can make a case for Chrome to begin inching into the PC market although slowly at first.
Intel in the Living Room
In his talk at CES, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said the company is fulfilling the prediction he made two years ago that “personal computing” is expanding to nearly every kind of device, a process that he said will transform Intel and the industry. It was reminiscent of Microsoft’s then CEO Bill Gates a number of years back with his well-publicized epiphany that the Internet would change the industry and his successful effort to make Microsoft a major player in the Net market.
Intel’s problem is that it has been slow to develop the low-power usage processors that are a must-have in a mobile world, thus allowing ARM-designs to dominate in smartphones,tablets and smart TVs. Intel says it’s now ready to challenge ARM-designed chips head-on.
So far its Atom processors have not had a successful run in tablets and smartphones but, based on the products in its CES booth, they are making inroads in the living room. It was showing various manufacturers’ boxes that were connected to TV sets, most of which used processors based on Intel’s low-cost Atom Media CE processor platform that is optimized for video.
Intel said it’s developing full system-on-a-chip (SoC) CE media processors that will be used in smart TVs and connected CE devices such as Blu-ray players and digital media adapters. It described them as providing “excellent performance for advanced user interfaces and software development platforms such as Adobe Flash, Intel’s Widget Channel, TV widgets and other apps like online gaming.”
Its newest SoC, once codenamed Sodaville, is called the CE4100. It includes a media processor and audio/video graphics components. It supports on one chip Internet and broadcast applications and can be used in IPTV STBs, smart TVs, Blu-ray players and digital media adapters.
Otellini showed a yet-to-launch STB from Orange (France Telecom) that can be used to watch linear and on-demand TV plus Internet videos and personal content including 3D video. The user interface is also 3D.
Intel TVs (Yes, Plural)
The most notable TV adapter in the Intel booth was the Acer TV box, on which we reported last week.
Iomega TV
Also on show was EMC’s Iomega TV adapter, which incorporates Boxee technology like D-Link’s Boxee box does, except it has a HD with up to 2TB for storing personal media and can be a DLNA server. The Iomega TV has Boxee’s entire and very impressive array of online services. Boxee does not yet have Netflix and Hulu Plus, but they’re expected by the time the Iomega TV starts shipping in February.
The Iomega TV can be used as a DLNA server and a private cloud at home and away. Like the comparable Boxee box that D-Link makes, it has the same UI, the same Intel CE4100 processor, and a two-sided remote with a QWERTY keyboard on one side. It has Wi-Fi 802.11n built-in and RCA, HDMI and optical audio connectors. The 2TB model is $349.99, the 1TB is $299 and the one without storage is $229.99.
Amino TV
There was a TV adapter box made by Amino Communications called Cubovision with Telecom Italia stamped on it that brought over-the-air broadcasts, over-the-top video services and pay-per-view but no subscription service. It has icons for frequently-used online video services and a 250GB drive for storing personal content. There is no browser and no search so it stops short of being a Google TV. There is no subscription fee. Shipments started in December at €199 ($266).
Also in the Intel booth was an Amino STB that was built specifically for France’s Free pay-TV service and broadband service provider. It serves as a home gateway and comes with DSL and fiber connections, a phone jack, four Ethernet ports and a USB port. Amino said it produced the box, based on its Freedom Jump design, in one year, from start to finish.
Amino, which makes IPTV STBs for many telcos, has recently obtained orders from Vodafone Iceland and the Ukraine’s Velton Telecom.
Amino CEO Andrew Burke said, “There is a real gap in the market for a powerful low-cost device that works with — rather than competes against — pay-TV operators’ existing pay-TV devices.” He said pay-TV operators want to counter cord-cutting by meeting consumers’ changing viewing habits. They want to offer subscribers, he said, “a companion device that blends seamlessly with their own user interface and branded customer experience.”
Among his predictions are that Google will get content from the TV networks, pay-TV services will begin offering OTT services and catch-up TV like Hulu and YouView will account for upwards of 40% of the broadcast TV that subscribers watch. He said, “The new TV landscape will probably not materialize for the next five years, but I would strongly contend that the 2011 movers and shakers will buy themselves an opportunity to dominate that future landscape.”
Amino’s Freedom Jump boxes use Intel’s Atom 4100 processor and the MeeGo OS that Intel and Nokia developed. It also uses Microsoft’s Bing search instead of Google or Opera.
Conceptronic TV
Holland-based Conceptronic was showing its YuiXX, an HD media player/IPTV STB and platform that uses Intel’s Media Processor CE 3100, a system-on-a-chip developed for CE gear in the home. It offers access to personal content stored on the home network and a Widget Channel for access to online video services, “bringing together media, information and community.”
The company said YuiXX “goes beyond existing TV Widget implementations by presenting all widgets in stunning HD.” There’s also a YuiXX widget store for apps such as video-on-demand, news, traffic information, weather and games. It offers both local (country dependent) and globally-available content.
It has a 2D/3D graphics processor for up to 1080p resolution and supports DTS and Dolby audio support, both pass-through and down mix. It searches for local content by artist, title, genre and the like and searches over multiple HDS on the network.
A YuiXX media widget can be displayed as a sidebar on the TV while watching something else or full-screen.
The company offers different tuner types for multiple countries and is compatible with ISPs, telcos or cable TV services. A built-in smart card reader allows consumers to use smart cards of their current providers in the YuiXX and have a single STB for multiple services.
It has DRM protection for such inputs as TV channels, VoD over IPTV or DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S tuner or ATSC tuner.
The company said the YuiXX boots up in about 5 seconds.
It can have an internal 2TB HD or the user can connect an external hard disk or an SD(HC) memory card.
The company said it would add functions such as Internet browsing, more codecs, network features like using the box as a network storage device (NAS) and EPG settings.
Suggested retail in Holland is €299 without an HD or €399 with a 1TB internal hard disk.
It said that together with two other Dutch companies, manufacturer ProDrive and integrator Metrological Media Innovations, Conceptronic will market the YuiXX globally.
Intel Connects
Intel showed two products that improve the connection between devices, neither of which were brand new.
Intel Wireless Display, WiDi, can be built into laptops that have its 2010 Core Processors. A hotkey on the laptop starts a video stream to a TV set that has a WiDi adapter connected like the one that Netgear sells. Dell, Sony and Toshiba make laptops with WiDi built-in.
Light Peak technology, a next-generation wireline method for connecting devices, uses optical wires rather than copper to transfer data at speeds of up to 10 Gbps next year and up to 100 Gbps in the future. At 10 Gbps it would take about 30 seconds to transfer a Blu-ray movie between devices. Initial products are expected in 2012. It raises the question of what will happen when the transmission speed between devices is faster than the hard disk’s ability to read and write data. Perhaps by then all device storage will be on solid-state drives (SSD), which Intel also makes.
And...
Intel has been a pioneer in smart TVs, perhaps even the pioneer. As best we can tell it coined the term “smart TV.” It partnered with Yahoo three years ago to produce a smart TV platform that’s on TV sets from the likes of Vizio, Panasonic and Sony. It’s the hardware partner in Google TV. It jointly developed with Nokia the MeeGo OS that is expected to run many smart TVs like the ones from Amino. Intel may be on its way to dominating in smart TVs in the same way it did in PCs.
Now let’s see what it can do in tablets. There were five at CES that used Atom processors: Archos A9, ViLv X70EX, Hanvon and Panasonic’s Toughbook CF-H1 Mobile Clinical Assistant. They are not a factor in the tablet market, but Intel intends its Atom processors to be.
For now Intel is doing very well in smart devices for the living room.
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