Intel is cutting funding of its iconic "Intel Inside" program

[Shawn Knight]

Smartphones and mobile devices in general have wreaked havoc on the PC industry over the past several years. As saturation set in, however, we saw things level out a bit and even start to recover but that may not be the case for much longer.

Multiple industry sources familiar with the matter tell CRN that Intel is slashing funding of its iconic “Intel Inside” campaign by 40 to 60 percent. What does that mean for the PC industry as a whole and ultimately, consumers?

As the publication highlights, Intel Inside is a compensation and funding incentive for OEMs and channel partners to market and sell products featuring Intel products. It’s been around since 1991 and is one of the world’s largest cooperative marketing programs. Several major OEMs and partners rely on the funding as part of their annual sales and marketing plans.

Intel confirmed to CRN that it was making changes to the Intel Inside program. A spokesperson told the publication the changes are intended to help customers more efficiently and effectively market with Intel while helping them [Intel] market with more precision in alignment with their business priorities.

A top executive from a major Intel partner told CRN that funds have been moved to other groups within Intel that aren’t channel-specific or PC-centric. Some money will also be staying in house to improve Intel’s profits and margins, the person said.

The CEO of a major solution provider said the cuts are most likely going to result in price increases from the OEMs (which will likely be passed on to the consumer). It's unfortunate that it is happening at a time when component costs are at the highest they have been in years, the CEO said, adding that it doesn’t bode well for commercial customers with new RFPs [requests for proposal] for PC purchases.

A marketing executive from a major tech vendor told CRN that the cutbacks are a sign of the times in the computer business. Another partner said it was a great program but with all the changes in the system builder and OEM community, it isn’t shocking.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/72281-intel-cutting-funding-iconic-intel-inside-program.html

 

[seeprime]

Intel isn't about to give up supporting their largest volume customers. They may have a new rebate program in place, or something similar, to encourage increased, not decreased, use of Intel CPU's instead of AMD Ryzen processors.

 

[bmw95]

I honestly hate it so much when those stickers are put on laptops and desktop PCs.

 

[amghwk]

I always loved the "intel inside" stickers, since the days of Pentium.

Not sure if people were actually paying less with the program, since the OEM manufacturers may never have passed on the concession to their customers in the first place.

 

[oldikes]

Aw man, "intel inside" and the little jingle will always be one of the few things I really like about intel

 

[MoeJoe]

The mobile phone sector is killing the personal computer realm as known by boomers and early Gen x.

Get used to it.

 

[EClyde]

It's to save money no matter what goop they say

 

[Wizwill]

I was pleased some years ago when Intel changed the formulation of the glue on the back of their logo- tags so that a sticky residue no longer remained when the annoying things were removed.

 

[Trillionsin]

I honestly hate it so much when those stickers are put on laptops and desktop PCs.

Don't hate the stickers, just that how cheaply they are usually sold and how people treat them almost as disposable computers. A lot of them being netbooks and only having 32 GB of HDD/SSD storage, making it hard to really do anything but surf the net. I realize a lot are not netbooks, but they hide the "Celeron" sticker, or replace it with "Intel Inside" stickers because people recognize Celerons as being slow. It almost seems like a marketing trick to me, to fool people into continuing to buy Celerons.

 

[tomkaten]

What was it back in the day, when Athlon was wiping the floor with Intel's P4 ? Oh yes, "Intel inside, I d I o t outside" (had to do that because Techspot censors the word, really, guys ?)

 

[Foobario]

If this is true, we should see the price gap between Intel and AMD PCs widen.

Somehow, just as the competition has caught up to Intel, I find it hard to believe they would give up on their kickbacks to OEMs. Seems like giving up on their part.

Or, maybe, the fact that OEMs are no longer submitting to Intel's will in regards to what AMD machines they can sell has angered Intel. Perhaps, they think the threat of the loss of the kickbacks will scare them back in line.