Being hyper competitive probably leads to being Insular, Intel admits it is Insular

There are many who pride themselves on being competitive.  So competitive they are regularly saying in their mind and to others how much better they are than the rest.  This superior attitude then leads you to think others are dumb.  They don’t get it.  Your way is better than others.

This could be described by Type A vs. Type B behaviors.

I have many times told the story one of the things I realized being surrounded by many Type A people in major corporations is that one way to look at people who are Type A is they are much more insecure than Type B, and happen to be really good at a few things.  So good at these few things that they these things become a top priority in their work and lives, they then tell others how good they are at these things.  Some may be impressed.  Many times though as time goes on, 5, 10, 15, 20 years, it looks kind of silly.

An example is Intel’s new CEO admitting the company had become Insular.  The world does not revolve around x86 processors.  In the Intel view, they are dominant of the x86 processor and they beat everyone else.  Meanwhile, many others have moved on to smartphones and tablets where the x86 processor is irrelevant. 

“We’d become insular,” Krzanich said. “We’d become focused on what was our best product versus where the market wanted to move.”

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“I was personally embarrassed that we seemed to have lost our way,” said Bryan, who lives in Oregon and works from Intel's Jones Farm campus in Hillsboro. He acknowledged that Intel had flat-out missed the consumer appeal of the iPad and other tablets, which now run primarily on designs from rival ARM Holdings.

That “put us in a hole,” Bryant said. “We’re paying a price for that right now.”

I can imagine there were dozens if not hundreds of people since the launch of the iPhone and iPad at Intel who were trying to tell others to wake up and embrace the mobile market.  “We are we have the Intel Atom.”  No that is a dumbed down x86.  The market wants a powerful mobile chip.  “We have the Intel Atom v2, then version 3.”  Meanwhile Qualcomm ships a Snapdragon 800.

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One way to view Intel is to think of them is not as a processor company, but as the dominant x86 processor semiconductor manufacturing company.  No one builds x86 processors better than Intel.  Who cares?  Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, Marvell, and many others are running many times faster than Intel building ARM processors to create the mobile experience.  Intel has become Insular to the mobile change.

We all have many more ARM processors in our lives than x86.

This problem is not unique to Intel.  I can name many more dominant companies that show the Insular, Type A I am better than you weak Type B people behavior.  Type A people because they are so competitive they will do anything to get to the top which means the Insular views grow faster.  

One thing I learned is waiting for change is more frustrating than just moving on.  Some who are Insular will show a steady decline, than no different than that hype competitive person is point the blame on other things, and not on themselves that they focused on something that most of us don’t care about.

in·su·lar
ˈins(y)ələr/
adjective
adjective: insular
  1. 1.
    ignorant of or uninterested in cultures, ideas, or peoples outside one's own experience.
    "a stubbornly insular farming people"
    antonyms: broad-mindedtolerant

Google missed in EPA Green Power Leadership Awards - Apple, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft

The EPA released the Green Power Leadership Awards.

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This was a good chance for the technology vendors who go Green to highlight their achievements.  Apple, Cisco, Dell, Intel and Microsoft are on the list.  What happened to Google?  They are not on the list.

Apple Inc.
Apple Inc., one of the largest information technology companies in the world, became an organization-wide Green Power Partner in 2013, increasing its green power use from 2012 by more than 285 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) to an annual total of more than 537 million kWh. Apple is pursuing a net zero energy strategy for its data centers, corporate facilities, and retail stores worldwide, and currently has achieved 85 percent green power for all its U.S. consumption. An important component of the strategy is creating new, Apple-owned renewable energy projects – utility-scale if necessary – located near the company's centers of energy demand.

Apple supplies all of its data centers with 100 percent renewable energy though its own projects or through grid-purchased renewable energy. For its largest data center, in Maiden, North Carolina, it has committed to more than 60 percent Apple-owned generation and achieves this by having constructed the nation’s largest end user-owned, solar photovoltaic array — a 20-megawatt (MW) facility on 100 acres of land — and a 10-MW fuel cell installation supplied by directed biogas, the largest non-utility fuel cell installation operating anywhere in the country. These projects produce 125 million kWh of green power a year. A second 20-MW solar photovoltaic array is installed and will be operational in October, increasing total green power generation at the data center to 167 million kWh a year, which is substantially beyond their 60 percent goal.

Many of Apple's other facilities also operate on 100 percent renewable energy from a combination of green power purchases and Apple-owned renewable projects, including its data center in Newark, California; its two newest data centers in Reno, Nevada and Prineville, Oregon; and corporate facilities in Cupertino, California; Elk Grove, California; Austin, Texas; and several overseas facilities.

By developing its own on-site projects, Apple ensures that it provides renewable energy that supports the company’s load and provides power to the local grid, and that this energy comes from new projects that would not have been built without Apple's involvement.

In the future, as its facilities and data centers grow, Apple plans to increase its green power use to keep pace with growth and pursue its goal of using 100 percent clean, renewable energy.

If you think you should be on this list you can submit here.

Application Process

Green Power Leadership Awards

EPA’s Green Power Leadership Awards recognize exceptional achievement among EPA Green Power Partners and among green power suppliers. Green Power Partners and green power suppliers may apply for an award, or another party may nominate them. EPA recognizes eligible organizations and suppliers in the award categories listed below:

Google Green has their content here.

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Are you Ready for the 7 billion Mobile Device Future? Intel's Top Anthropologist predicts a Mobile Future with 4 insights

Intel Developer Forum was this week and I have gone 3 times but didn't go this year.

The last days keynote is here by Genevieve Bell who is an anthropologist.  Below is a video of her keynote and the presentation.

Intel Developer Forum 2013 Keynote - Genevieve Bell

 

To help the attendees tweet the her presentation Genevieve inserted Twitter Blue Birds to help people know what to tweet.

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Part of why I like to blog is there are things I can say or show that is too hard to tweet.  It is so much easier to tell a story.  Here are the four insight that Genieve shared.

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One of the points made is being in the moment, in the flow.  One of the problems Windows has is association with this.

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To its credit Windows doesn't crash the way it used, but I would say the number 1 irritant is Windows Update. I can almost count on when I fire up Windows that Windows update will disrupt my flow.  Now to be fair I only use Windows once a month and too many times there is a critical update that forces a reboot.  Or I just get used to when I fire up Windows I allow 15-30 minutes at the beginning to run Windows update.  Luckily I just run Windows on parallels on my Mac.  The Mac does have updates as well, but they almost never force themselves in my flow.

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Intel just announced it was shutting down its plant in the Boston area because it is stuck in 32nm wafer fab past and Intel is getting ready for a 14 nm future.  The old way of Intel was to build big complex processors to make money.  It looks like the new way is billions of small, low cost, power efficient chips.  Huh, sounds like the ARM strategy.

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One of the things that doesn't get presented is whether Intel has figured out a future that allows the selling of these small devices, making little money on the billions of small devices because in the big picture Intel can figure out where to maximize its profit across the whole system.  Its like Google giving away Android so it can make money on advertising.

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OK this what i wanted to say.  Couldn't do this in a tweet.  

Intel launches Intel Inside brand in Amazon Web Services with Marketing $$$s, bad news for ARM vendors

Intel Inside ®  is a recognized label on your laptop.  Now Intel has announced Intel Inside in a Cloud.  Amazon Web Sevices Cloud.

·        Amazon Web Services becomes first cloud service provider to use the “Intel Inside®” brand, letting its customers know that the services it provides utilize Intel technology.

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Why did Intel negotiate with Amazon to have Intel Inside brand in the Cloud?  It looks like there is co-marketing of Intel advertising to sell the use of compute on AWS on this site http://www.powerof60.com/en/.

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Intel advertising money showing up in a Cloud to market compute scenarios is something the ARM vendors are going to have a tough time competing against.

Intel defends its data center territory vs. ARM with C2000 Atom

Intel announced last week the Intel ARM C2000 at 6W

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The ARM processor was claimed to be more efficient.  And now the C2000 is 6x performance per watt

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Barrons blog has a post on the business impact of the Intel Atom.  Here are the two analyst views.

Doug Freedman of RBC Capital Markets reiterated an Outperform rating and a $29 price target on the shares, writing, “INTC’s new Atom low-power C2000, successor to S1200, is a very compelling offering in that it not only offers up to 6x performance/ watt (vs. S1200), but will enable newer markets leveraging prior SoC efforts in mobile (smartphone/tablet).

Thus INTC stands to pick-up ground in new markets with attractive ROI on more customized solutions [...] Performance vs. select S1200 parts are expected to be up to 7x faster, offering up to 6x higher performance per watt. The product is expected to be a best-in-class solution vs. competitive ARM solutions in the marketplace [...] We were encouraged to hear that the gross margin impact is expected to be “a wash”. To us, this implies that the margins are at least comparable to performance-based parts, and potentially better due to 22nm and cost efficiencies realized as a result of leveraging mobile resources.”

From the bear camp, Hans Mosesmann of Raymond James, reiterating an Underperform rating, wrote that “Intel introduced today an impressive number of Atom-based processor, switch, memory, and optical connectivity products/technologies for the datacenter in a move that highlights, in our view, Intel’s sense of urgency to defend its server processor supremacy.”

It is hard to fathom Intel making this big of a splash had ARM not released its 64-bit v8 architecture (for licensing) nearly two years ago with the subsequent strong design interest. Intel was at pains to explain that microservers, as a category, are small but the opportunity for adjacent markets is big. Translation: we are worried about the ARM threat and are willing to cannibalize existing low-end, highly profitable XEONs to make sure this does not happen.”