Intel is not going to give up on the Itanium, and, with HP at their side, is investing $10 Billion over the next 4 years for the promotion and development of the chip. Further research and improvements of both the CPU and platforms designed around it are planned, along with more interaction with vendors and software developers to try and increase interest in the chip that has been plagued so many times in the past.
"The Itanium processors were designed to outperform all the other server chips, including x86, Power and Sparc. However, the new architecture faced numerous delays and performance-vise was not impressive from the start. But while Dell and IBM ceased making Itanium-based machines, 70 of the Fortune 100 corporations utilizing or planning Itanium solutions deployments, Intel says."
Many others in the past have stopped supporting Itanium in various areas, including most recently Microsoft(at least partially). It will be an uphill battle for Intel, but with the huge financial backing and their position as the number one CPU developer in the world, they just might get their way.