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Interview with Jesús Sánchez Paniagua, Consumer Director for Southwest Europe at Intel

Last week the celebration of the Intel Showroom 2022 took place, an event held in Madrid where the chip giant told us about some of the cmost important keys of the consumer marketpurchase intention, and consumer experience and behavior.

At the end of this event we had the opportunity to interview Jesus Sanchez PaniaguaDirector of Consumer Affairs for Southwest Europe at Intel, and we asked him a total of five questions that, in our opinion, are very interesting, and that today we can finally share with you.

How could it be otherwise, these questions revolve around a very important issue, the new normality to which the COVID-19 pandemic has brought us. The present and future social reality has left us in a situation fraught with challenges for the consumerand this interview has allowed us to discover how Intel is responding to them.

Without more I want to give the thanks to Jesus for dedicating us a little of his time, and for making this interview possible. That said, make yourselves comfortable that we begin, and you have many interesting things to read.

Intel NUC

[MuyComputer] We have been two years of authentic madness that have left us with very marked social and economic changes. There is no doubt that this reality has left a very deep mark, and that it has affected our way of working, training and socializing, but also our way of buying. How has Intel met the challenges posed by such changes in the general consumer market?

[Jesús] As you say, in the last two years there have been changes that have led to an acceleration in the use of new technologies, in support of emerging needs such as teleworking or tele-education. This has been a challenge for many users who did not see technology as an enabler, but as a companion.

By having to interact on a more daily basis with technologies such as the PC, the user has become more demanding with what he expects from them. For example, it is no longer enough to have a video conference while you stop doing other things, but you have to be able to write, open programs, etc. while having a conversation without background noise, and with an image as clear as possible. And, of course, this affects the way you buy. Now we know better what we want, and we demand more for what we pay.

For this reason, one of the challenges that has been posed to us is how to better communicate the benefits of technology, and the experience that the user can expect after their purchase. In this sense, platforms such as Intel EVO aspire to respond to those users who do not know what technical characteristics they need, but what they expect when buying a high-end PC: that it meets their expectations.

[MuyComputer] A new normal implies new needs, and this forces us to develop new products that are capable of covering them effectively and efficiently. In this context, how has Intel responded?

[Jesús] Intel is committed to constant innovation, adapting to consumer needs and demand. During this last year, different products have been launched to satisfy these needs. First of all, it is worth noting the launch Intel Core HX which took place in the framework of Intel Vision 2022 where it was presented as the best mobile workstation platform in the world.

The idea to create these CPUs arose from the need for professionals and content creators to have more processing power and higher platform bandwidth to iterate content faster. Thanks to the new core architecture and the increased power limits of these processors, content creators have been made easier to tackle the most demanding work processes like never before by offering high levels of performance for software and processes. professional workspaces such as CAD, animation, and visual effects. This also enables companies and production agencies to better meet the goals and budgets of fast-paced work environments.

These processors facilitate the best mobile workstation platforms by delivering 65% more performance in multi-threaded workloads with more cores, more memory, and more I/O, while utilizing the Intel® Thread Director Technology to take advantage of high-performance cores and efficient cores so professionals can create, code, render, and work with maximum efficiency in the office, at home, or on the go.

But it wasn’t just mobile workstation users who demanded advances. A few hours ago, in Intel Innovation 2022the 13th Generation of Intel Core (Raptor Lake-S) led by the Intel Core i9-13900K, the world’s fastest desktop processor. The entire series has been designed to offer a seamless experience for gamers and content creators.

Another great need for consumers was to find a solution for seamless connectivity between their devices, that is, between their phones (Android and iOS) and their PCs. To achieve this, we have just introduced Intel Unison, a software solution that connects both devices to deliver a universal and easy-to-use experience across all operating systems – starting with functionality that includes file transfer, text messages, phone calls and phone notifications. The initial release of Intel Unison will deliver a seamless connectivity experience between the phone (starting with iOS and Android) and the PC; it’s coming to new laptops starting later this year.

[MuyComputer] Going deeper into the subject of new needs and the purchase of new products, what do you think have been the most important changes that have occurred in consumer purchase intentions during the last year?

[Jesús] As I mentioned before, the PC user is increasingly demanding with what he expects from his device and that makes him know how to identify the limitations of his equipment. The consequence of this is that most consumers want to buy better.

The fact that the intention to buy a PC increases this year despite the economic situation, and that the main motivator for the purchase is that the user needs better features, shows how relevant its use is, whether it is for studying, work, generate content, leisure, etc. In the Purchase Intention study commissioned from GFK Consumer Insights Engine, the user told us that the PC is the device they give the most use to: 6.7 uses compared to 6.1 uses in the case of the telephone, which indicates up to what point is important in your day to day.

During the first quarter of 2020, about 65% of the use that users made of their PC was general, such as browsing the Internet or using office, study or work applications. Nowadays, the consumer has more defined the use he gives to his PC and, in most cases, they separate the use of leisure and work using different devices. Two years ago, for example, the creation of content did not appear as an option for use among users, now accounting for 12% of declared use. In addition, this increase in the use of the PC is reflected in the reason for the purchase of the users.

Since the last quarter of 2021 and up to now, not being satisfied with the PC you have appears as the main purchase trigger. This is either because it doesn’t work well, or because it doesn’t have the features I need (73%), reducing purchases as a first PC or as an additional product. Another of the changes that we see reflected in this study is the increase in the importance of promotions as a purchase engine in this last year.

Intel-Unison

[MuyComputer] Intel has maintained an important commitment to improve the user experience by going beyond simple raw performance. In this sense, it is undeniable that Intel Evo has become one of the great benchmarks in the industry. What values ​​would you highlight within said platform as great drivers of user experience?

[Jesús] The Intel Evo platform is a certification for laptops with Intel processors that indicates quality, speed, mobility and power, that is, it has the necessary technical characteristics to respond to what the consumer considers a premium experience. As you say, it has been designed to meet the current needs of users in the laptop sector, first of all, by enhancing performance, battery capacity, size and usability.

To display the Intel Evo badge, devices must meet a set of key experience indicators based on thousands of hours of research into how people use their laptops. These requirements guarantee an exceptional experience in everyday activities.

Made possible by the Project Athena innovation program, laptops based on the new Intel Evo platform are designed to improve users’ concentration, productivity and quality of activities.

All notebooks based on this platform offer more power and fluidity to the applications you use every day, allowing you to get up and get things done more easily. This ability to react is something that makes the difference and allows the user to access a premium experience. Instant boot up and of course battery life are also drivers in elevating the user experience.

Laptops based on the Intel Evo platform “wake up” from sleep in less than a second and are ready when you open them or touch a key; some even respond the moment they identify your face. Plus, these laptops provide 9 or more hours of battery life, and for longer days, a 30-minute quick charge gives you four more hours. All this contemplating an intensive use of the device, that is, with several applications running, a powerful exchange of information and the transmission of multimedia content on FHD screens.

[MuyComputer] The arrival of Raptor Lake has been a demonstration of good work on the part of Intel, since it has allowed qualitative and quantitative improvements that certainly have not left anyone indifferent. The combination of P cores and E cores has proven that specialization offers great value to the user and allows them to enjoy the best of both worlds. Do you think this has also influenced the user’s purchase intention?

[Jesús] With this generation, Intel’s performance hybrid architecture brings together the fastest performance core (P-core) ever made along with up to twice as many efficient cores (E-core), delivering improved single-thread performance and of several threads that, as you indicate, offers added value to the user.

In this context, the new Intel Core i9-13900 stands out, which has up to 24 cores (8 P cores, 16 E cores) and 32 threads that provide the best gaming, streaming and recording experience. This is a processor whose performance reaches up to 5.8 GHz and 15% more in a single thread, which allows to reach high frame rates and allows you to enjoy unlimited gaming experiences. This, of course, influences the purchase intention of the gaming segment, one of the most important segments that accumulates the highest percentage of expected spending (PC Gaming) and is constantly growing.

On the other hand, this series of desktop processors adds more E-cores and up to 41% better multi-threading performance to tackle multiple compute-intensive workloads to keep the user in the creative flow.

These continuous advances in content creation performance meet the needs of those facing more demanding work processes. As I mentioned before, we currently have a consumer with an increasingly premium and specialized profile that demands advances and improvements in devices. This drives Intel engineers to push themselves every day for greater efficiency and performance to not only meet but exceed user demands.

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