NEW DELHI : Intel on Thursday announced a rebranding initiative for its consumer processors, marking the first major change in nearly 15 years. The company will phase out the ‘Core i’ branding for its consumer PC processors and adopt a numbered nomenclature system instead.
It will also launch a new range of ‘Core Ultra’ chips for high-end PCs, the company said in a statement.
Industry experts said that the move signals an attempt from the PC processor major to revamp its image, as rival chipmakers such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia are benefiting from the rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven applications.
The new branding will be launched with the company’s next generation of processors for desktops and laptops, so far called Meteor Lake. The latter will be its 14th generation of processors and was showcased at the PC show Computex 2023 in Taiwan on 30 May. Among other features, Intel’s showcase revealed a co-processing unit called ‘Versatile Processing Unit’ (VPU) in its processors, which will be used for local processing of AI and machine learning workloads.
Intel’s departure from the ‘Core i’ branding of its processors comes nearly 15 years after the launch of the Core i7-920 desktop processor in the December quarter of 2008.
Interestingly, Intel’s rebranding announcement and the launch of a new ‘Ultra’ range follows the launch of iPhone maker Apple’s latest processor for its PCs — the M2 Ultra.
Akshara Bassi, an analyst at market researcher Counterpoint India, said that Intel’s rebranding exercise could be targeted at offering its products to specific categories.
“Apple launched its own ‘Ultra’ range of processors, and while Intel is not a direct rival to Apple in this space, it could use this tag to target its clients, i.e. PC brands, to demarcate products of a certain calibre of performance,” Bassi said. She further added that a rebranding exercise could be crucial for Intel at this juncture due to its lacklustre business performance over the past quarters.
“If you look at the industry, Nvidia has had a very strong run, thanks to its graphic processing unit (GPU) business seeing strong demand driven by the need for AI training and processing — even by big companies worldwide. AMD launched its new line of processors earlier this week with a strong consumer processor roadmap that also targets the AI buzz with its own GPUs. Intel is the only company that has continued to struggle,” Bassi said.
Sharath Srinivasamurthy, associate vice-president at market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) India, also said that the rebranding exercise could be a move to align itself with the rising trend of AI in the market.
“The move could be a way for Intel to align itself to market trends of AI and cyber security from processor design, which its rival brands are enforcing. More than a drastic product refresh, it is this that the company could be seeking with its new branding,” he said.
However, Alan Priestley, VP analyst at Gartner, said that such rebranding exercises are within the scope of expectations during new product launches—in Intel’s case, Meteor Lake.
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Updated: 15 Jun 2023, 11:07 PM IST