19. Conclusion: Off To A Respectable Start

With the Pentium-M, Intel has succeeded in creating an interesting new breed of microprocessors. The results of our early tests were satisfying in regards to both performance as well as battery life. If you were hoping that the Pentium-M for notebooks would mean that you can use your laptop for six to eight hours without recharging, however, then please remember that the CPU is not the only thing that sucks away at battery life. One of the biggest sources of power consumption is the backlight of the the display as well as the hard drive, and this is something that probably isn't going to change in the near future.

It remains to be seen if people can get used to the fact that Intel's latest mobile processor with its high price tag will not be able to outperform Pentium 4-M. Intel's marketing department will be busy teaching people that it's not performance that counts, but the product of performance and battery life. This will be especially difficult in the consumer segment.

Intel's strategy to make wireless LAN globally popular will play an important role for the success of Pentium-M. Once people can use their notebooks anywhere to connect to the Internet, battery life will become a rather important issue, because you don't want to sacrifice your newly earned freedom for a regular trip to the next power outlet.

In times of decreasing revenues and profits in almost all PC-segments, Intel has made the right decision to concentrate major efforts on the last remaining growing part of the PC-business - the mobile devices. If Banias becomes a success, - and who will doubt this? - Intel's competitors will have a hard time competing with their slightly modified desktop processor solutions.