Intel here; Intel there; Intel everywhere.

Apart from Intel’s big acquisition plans to expand its business, the Sponsors of Tomorrow also have intentions of coming up with new uses for its Atom processor. The idea is for the Atom processor to be present in as many products (electronic devices other than computers or mobile phones). It is this very idea that has prompted Intel to buyout Infineon with the aim of paving its way into the wireless business; whereby the mobile phone market has been a weak link for Intel.

The market for the embedded processors (Atom chips in other electronic devices) is around 10 billion dollars and this seems pretty less compared to the PC processors market estimated at 34.5 billion dollars. Intel’s revenues out of this would round up to 43 billion dollars wherein the revenue share from embedded products is just 1 billion dollars. This easily depicts the potential of the embedded processors market.

Like any other company that could face a situation of saturation from its core business, Intel also could end up depending too much on its PC market which apparently seems to have reached the maturity phase. With plans of growing and expanding its Atom processor to other devices, Intel looks at any and every electronic device capable of having chips embedded onto them. These chips though are not as strong and powerful as the ones used in PCs, are yet reasonable in price and also perform the function for which they are created. The existence of these chips is evident in treadmills wherein the chips enable users to view time and distances covered during workouts. The up and coming digital advertising system is another potential market for Intel and an example of this is LG’s electronic hoarding (which is currently using the Atom chips) identifies every onlooker’s age, gender and other characteristics and changes its advertising message according to each onlooker and his requirements.

Intel’s motives behind its acquisitions of McAfee and Wind River Systems other than expansions also includes the aim of making it easier for business customers to use its Atom chips in a hassle free way. Wind River fabricates commonly used operating systems such as Linux and Google’s Android to work on Intel’s chips. The installation of McAfee would relieve users of any virus or malware attacks that could happen to their devices.

The ambition of Intel to exist in every electronic device possible not just depicts business growth for itself but also makes lives of various end-users of electronic devices easy; and this needs to be appreciated. A fact that would leverage this ambition is that Intel, at present would transform 1200 proposals (out of 3800 received during the second quarter) into Atom-based products.

All-in-all, a good strategy employed by Intel to grow into the fast-developing embedded processors business and not just completely rely on its PC business.