Intel Enabling PC Consumer Applications : Digital camera packs, video-conferencing and PC/DTV

Electronic News, Sept 13, 1999 by Peter Brown

Palm Springs, Calif.--Intel Corp. continues to introduce various consumer platforms for the PC in an effort to further its Internet PC push.

The microprocessor giant believes these consumer applications represent an untapped growing market that will help spawn future markets beyond the PC.

"This stuff is not user friendly," Craig Barrett, Intel president and chief executive officer, said in his keynote address at Intel Developer's Forum, held here. "Our job is to make it friendly and easy to implement for the next decade."

Some of these easy to use ideas include instant-on PCs, easier to use software and plug-and-play peripherals.

That may be where the idea for the Intel PC Camera Pro Pack came together. The Pack is targeted at making it easy for consumers to take pictures and do other Internet activities through their PC.

The Pack includes a video phone, video e-mail and auto snapshot capabilities. Intel claims the camera is the first PC with a built-in video capture plug to bring live or recorded video directly into PCs. The plug comes from the VGA PC camera included in the Pack that connects a camcorder or VCR to the PC itself. This means that users can import video to play, record and edit on the PC screen, Intel said. The Pack is available for $129.

The video phone software lets consumers make video calls over dial-up and broadband connections including cable modem and DSL lines. Other features include e-mail postcards, movie builder software for personal films, and a home page builder for Internet Web sites.

Intel is hedging its bets on the idea that PC cameras will be widely used this year and in the coming years. Cahners In-Stat Group, a market research firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz., predicts that more than 2.4 million PC cameras will be sold by the end of 1999 with that number increasing to more than five million in the year 2000.

Intel also demonstrated its ProShare 500 video-conferencing systems targeted at next-generation PC users who will be using the Internet for more than just word processing or surfing the Web.

Cameras and conferencing weren't the only consumer focus for Intel; the company also furthered its set-top box and digital television (DTV) plans by introducing the Ganymede digital entertainment platform. The platform includes analog and DTV reception, recording and playback as well as an electronic programming guide and Internet connectivity. Ganymede allows users to control devices and get information by voice command. The platform is just in the initial testing phase and Intel plans on using it for both PC/DTV and set-top box applications. n