Bengal IT minister Debesh Das (left) at Infocom 2007-08 in Calcutta on Thursday. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

Calcutta, Feb. 21: Intel is set to launch a series of low-cost processors in India by June or July, which will revolutionise the pricing of computer notebooks and PCs.

The chip maker has been working on this project for the last six years.

“India is a country where PC penetration and broadband connectivity is far below desired levels. Broadband penetration when compared with countries such as Brazil, which started at the same time as India, is set to reach only 4 per cent by 2012 against 20 per cent in Brazil,” said R. Sivakumar, Intel’s managing director (South Asia), on the sidelines of Infocom 2007-08, which is being jointly organised by Businessworld, an ABP Group publication, and CeBIT.

“With these low-cost processors, we expect 2008 to witness an explosion in terms of new connectivity and computing products,” he added.

Refusing to comment on the exact cut in prices, Sivakumar said Intel did not price end products but as key input costs such as that of processors would go down, a shift of Rs 3,000-5,000 could be expected.

Most of these processors would be for the mobility platform such as notebooks.

In the first half of 2007, around 40 per cent of all computing devices sold in India were notebooks or laptops.

“People are opting for laptops in India because they run on batteries and do not always need power. The reduction in the cost of these processors would result in more products coming out with local specifications and characteristics,” Sivakumar said.

“We, at Intel, are not compromising on cutting edge technology to bring about such a cost reduction. The technology would be state-of-the-art as is available on our other range,” he added.

On the WiMax project in Bengal, he said Intel was still in discussion with the state.

Sivakumar’s visit is his third to Calcutta in the last four weeks.

IT meet

Bengal IT minister Debesh Das today inaugurated Infocom 2007-08 in Calcutta.

He said, the Centre should encourage the IT hardware sector through a comprehensive policy as India had already made its mark in the software sector.

At the Infocom 2007-08, seminars were held on skills, services and innovation in the information, communication and technology sector.