'Our message is conveyed through marketing and branding'

Tom Kilroy, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Sales and Marketing, Intel Corporation, is a 20-year veteran at the world's largest maker of semiconductors. On a recent visit to India, he spoke to Business Today's Kushan Mitra on the fresh challenges for Intel as more customers switch to smaller devices where Intel has little presence.

I have been coming to India for over 15 years and have seen the success of our marketing since those days. In the mid-'90s till 2000, everybody knew about 'Pentium', and while people never bought a Pentium chip there was a recognition of what a Pentium processor-based computer could offer you. A lot of our message is conveyed through marketing and branding. There was Pentium, then there was Centrino and now Core.

I think you have to look at our newly-designed 'Atom' processors carefully which has created a whole new market segment. It's also enabling a whole lot of new embedded devices from security systems, banking machines to digital kiosks on retail shop floors. And then there are smart phones and tablets where Atom fits in as well.

It's not wireless broadband alone but applications that will make the difference. You have to understand that most consumers are not just interested in getting connected to the Internet, they are interested in getting connected to each other. As broadband becomes more pervasive and more affordable, people will use it to connect to each other. And as this happens, you will see a huge explosion in the content and software industry.