What an amazing, whirlwind week!  I just spent a week in Asia- between IDF 2011 Beijing and visiting the Embedded & Communications Group (ECG) team in Penang, Malaysia.  Spring has certainly sprung and it was exciting to meet so many customers and industry fellow travelers in Beijing.  This was my first IDF show- and I’ll have to say it was well done!  The keynotes were engaging with multiple demonstrations in each one.  The Oak Trail announcement certainly showed me how Intel is ready to ship competitive product into the tablet market and what was even better was seeing the final products from partner companies ready to use with graphical interfaces and stylish form factors.

It made me proud to see these offerings and made me think about how embedded customers may use this product for tablet form factors in our markets.  I know the mobile point of sale platforms would love to have a long battery life product with Windows running as a way to enable sales personnel to ring up transactions anywhere in the store.   This was just one way I thought our segments might benefit.  The key now is to see what the developer community and our customers do with the product- as Doug Davis’s IDF 2010 keynote highlighted- “Oh the places Atom will go….”

I was then on the move to Penang.  I had a “cultural experience” when my luggage was lost en route and I had to do some emergency shopping to be ready for work the next morning.  Yes - it was a rookie mistake, I’ll always either keep my bag w/me or keep at least 1 outfit.  Anyway, I did manage to find a decent work outfit in my size and all the cosmetics/sundries to make me presentable.  The cultural learning was Asian mascara is clear - that is not something I would have guessed… In the office my team walked me through multiple demos of the exciting platforms and SW we are enabling.  It really inspired me to see the innovation that is at hand and the close collaboration the team has across Penang, Taiwan and China.  I can speak in even more depth about each part of the organization and what challenges and opportunities await in 2011.  By Friday night it was time to say goodbye, and thank you to my hosts.  On my way now to return to Phoenix- in 4 flights and 29 hours I’ll be home!

Intel Malaysia projector team holding the small form factor adaptor module- converts any projector to a WiFi/WiDi accessible projector.