The need is not just speed
Though Moore’s Law for the most part still holds true, the importance of raw processing speed (measured in hertz) is diminishing. And not just in consumers’ minds.
At the launch of Centrino Pro, Intel’s update of its popular mobile computing chips, business development manager Joubert de Lange says he won’t be using the word “gigahertz” once in his presentation. That’s because cPro isn’t about processor speed but really a platform of complementing technologies designed to get the most out of laptops.
The cPro platform is the mobile equivalent of Intel’s vPro for desktops launched in September last year. Of the many new features included, De Lange says its new security and remote management capabilities are probably the most significant.
For most large companies the cost of managing large fleets of laptops – keeping them secure and updated – far outstrips the cost of the hardware. A survey by research consultancy Gartner showed that just 9% of the budget of IT departments in large companies is used for innovation – with the remaining 91% going on maintenance.
With cPro, laptops can be remotely accessed even when they’re switched off or the operating system is down. Out of hours checks can be automated so that field workers aren’t affected by system maintenance issues and the bane of any corporate IT department – so-called desk-side visits and manual installations of security patches – are substantially reduced.
Easier laptop fleet management and a reducing price gap with desktop PCs are boosting the move towards corporate mobile computing. Gartner calculates that between 2000 and 2006 the sales of laptops to the business sector in Europe, Middle East and Africa grew by an average of 25%/year compared to 4% for desktops. Over the same period sales of mobile PCs came to represent a larger part of the overall mix – from 17% in 2000 to 36% in 2006.
In the first quarter of 2007, mobile computers represented 50% of all sales of PCs in Western Europe. In the UK, for example, shipments of mobile PCs were up 47% over last year. Gartner likens this trend to the speed at which mobile phones were adopted. Intel itself has 85 000 laptop users, representing about 85% of the company’s workforce.
Compared to Europe, SA is lagging, says De Lange. “Laptops still make up less than 10% of the corporate computer environments in SA. The uptake of mobile computing is still largely confined to home offices and the small business sector.”
It’s not just corporate IT managers who should welcome cPro; end-users can also look forward to new technology from Intel called Turbo Memory. It makes booting up and application load times much faster by using flash memory – the type found on digital cameras and MP3 players. Reducing the number of times the hard drive has to be accessed also improves battery life.
Launched in 2003 Intel’s Centrino platform with its integrated wireless Internet access technology, made WiFi the industry standard that it is today and its wide adoption also had the effect of lowering the costs of equipment for consumers. According to Forrester Research, 27% of consumers now connect to the Internet wirelessly with a laptop – a 145% increase since 2003. While WiFi hotspots are proliferating in SA in hotels, airports and in homes, it isn’t nearly on par with Europe and the US. In San Francisco for instance, search giant Google is building a free network to cover the entire city.
CPro sports new WiFi technology that promises connection speeds of up to six times the speed of current configurations. Intel’s new chip sets also feature vastly improved graphics and, combined with the faster WiFi, are capable of smoothly streaming high-definition movies – just the sort of thing mobile professionals need to improve productivity out of the office.
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