One of the major partners of the government’s ‘Connected Indian’ initiative to connect 500

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million Indians to the internet by 2012, Intel expects several more Atom processor-based low-cost and smaller devices and applications coming into the market soon. The company says that this will help in achieving the target.

Prakash Bagri, director – marketing, Intel South Asia told Financial Chronicle that the device proliferation is going to increase led by niche categories. “We are expecting several unique Indian devices and models to come in soon. These will be in areas like education, entertainment and increasing productivity in business like mobile banking, mobile point of sale and mobile government services,” he said.

There could be lot of action in the embedded space using Intel’s Atom processor in coming days. He added that some entrepreneurs are working with Intel and other technology companies to develop unique solutions, but declined to give details.

Atom was launched globally by the chipmaker over two years ago with over 1 billion shipments so far. The low-cost, low power processor has been used to develop and build new categories like netbooks, e-readers and embedded car solutions, which are also seeing good traction in India.

Bagri said that India is a critical market for Atom. “With less than 10 per cent broadband penetration at present, the country represents huge opportunity. Atom has opened the door for us to target and expand this market since it helps in innovation, delivery and price points,” he said.

Intel is working with telecom operators, manufacturers and the government to drive internet usage in the country. The initiative envisions 500 million internet users, 100 million broadband connections and 100 million broadband-enabled devices in the country by 2012. With respect to 2010, Bagri said Intel is focusing on getting home users and enterprises to go for replacements. “Consumers both in metros and rural India are upgrading their devices. We are also working with companies to help them change their IT infrastructure,” he added.