August 11, 2005
Centrino is hype, but is it immoral hype?
Intel has been marketing “Centrino” for quite some time now. I can remember at least a year or two ago, seeing these commercials making all sorts of claims about what having a “Centrino technology” laptop could do to revolutionize mobile computing. Needless to say, I was intrigued. But as with all marketying hype, the BS detector in my head started twitching.
It took me a while to learn why. Centrino is simply a brand, a title, given to a combination of Intel components. It defines a computer with an Intel Pentium M processor, an Intel 855 or 915 mobile chipset, and certain Intel wireless adapters (along with a few extra things, such as Windows XP/etc). In reality, Centrino doesn’t do anything other non-Intel components cannot do. I could have a laptop with an AMD processor, an AMD chipset, and a Linksys wireless card, more than capable of besting any Centrino laptop in performance, but it won’t carry the name. Likewise, a computer using the Intel Celeron M processor may consume less power, be cheaper, and consume less power than a Pentium M-based system, carry the 915 chipset and Intel wireless card, but will not classify as Centrino. As a marketing campaign, it allows other PC manufacturers to carry the Centrino brand, and Intel (I’m not 100% certain of this) may even pay these manufacturers or offer special incentives to adopt Centrino. Much has been made by the true technophiles about how “Centrino” is nothing but marketing hype, and yet Intel not only continues their campaign, but is now extending it to wi-fi spots:
Intel is also certifying hotspots. A Centrino certified hotspot gets to prominently display the Centrino logo. As a result of its testing, Intel claims that Centrino-certified hotspots are better for working over WiFi connections than your ordinary run-of-the-mill non-Centrino certified hotspots. The fifth promise is that if you have a Centrino notebook, you’ll have a better chance of connecting to a Centrino-certified hotspot than if you have a Centrino notebook and you’re not in a Centrino hotspot, or if you have a non-Centrino notebook and you’re in a Centrino hotspot
Now, to most people, that sounds like a pretty good thing. Intel is going around to these places certifying that certain hotspots will work with its componentry. And just like offering to other PC manufacturers the ability to claim that their laptops are Centrino, it is now allowing coffee houses, hotels, and other wi-fi hotspots the ability to give themselves an added marketing edge over competitors. But this author is unhappy with such marketing tactics.
Since the key difference between Centrino notebooks and non-Centrino notebooks is the inclusion of an Intel-made WiFi radio, the biggest targets of what I think to be a disingenuous marketing and branding program are the manufacturers of other WiFi radios such as Broadcom and Atheros. Once buyers start feeling as though they need a Centrino notebook to increase the likelihood of compatibility with the more than 70,000 worldwide Centrino-certified hotspots (a number Intel loves to publicize), then Intel will have beaten its competitors with deceptive marketing rather than better technology.
Here’s why the marketing is deceptive. There’s no evidence to suggest that if I have a non-Centrino notebook, that I’ll definitely have a more difficult time connecting in a Centrino hotspot than I would with a Centrino notebook.
Yes, this is aimed squarely at their wi-fi competitors. But no, they are not claiming that you will “definitely have a more difficult time” connecting if you don’t have a Centrino laptop at a Centrino hotspot. What they are claiming is that they have tested that Centrino works in that spot, and that is all.
Everyone who has worked with wi-fi over the last few years knows that there can be some finicky compatibility issues. The common advice I’ve heard for people setting up home wireless networks is to keep all your components within one brand. Have a Netgear wireless card? Buy a Netgear wireless router. As with anything else, nobody is saying you will definitely have problems with your network if you have a Linksys wireless card and a Netgear router, but nobody is going to go out on a limb and claim it is supported. However, Netgear as a company is going to make sure that their own cards are compatible with their own routers, through extensive testing.
No matter what you choose, you’re probably not going to have any problems. But more testing done on any given configuration is a good thing. This is specifically true with modern laptops. Dell, for example (the laptop I’m writing this post on) sells “their own” wireless cards. I say “their own” because it is actually a third-party card with Dell’s name and graphics on it, and it is a low-cost wireless card rather than a major brand. Thus, it is likely to be less tested in any given configuration than a major brand card, and will be more likely to encounter compatibility issues. Intel is simply saying that if you have a Centrino notebook, you will definitely be able to connect to a Centrino hotspot. Nothing more, nothing less.
Intel is encountered on a major marketing campaign in order to sell more of their own wireless adapters and the “Centrino” brand: this is true. And they’re using their market share as an incentive to get wi-fi hotspots to reinforce that brand: this is true. Is that deceptive? I don’t think so. One of my coworkers came up with a very insightful analogy. When you’re playing no-limit poker, somone who is sitting on a large stack of chips gets a certain power over the table. They can push people around, bluff at pots smaller stacks couldn’t, and generally use that stack to control the table. They can still be beat, to be sure, but they have an inherent advantage due to the stack they’ve built up. Is it wrong or unfair? I don’t think it is. This is the exact place Intel is sitting. They’re using their market share and power to try and increase their market share and power. It creates a certain natural barrier of entry to other manufacturers, but a surmountable barrier. Oddly enough, Intel’s own restrictions on the Centrino brand may be its undoing:
Drop the snake oil and kill the Centrino brand. It’s a tactic that’s way beneath what I think the Intel brand stands for. And hey, you might even sell more Mobile Celeron’s in the process!
The Celeron M processor is much cheaper and suits most home users’ needs. As long as Centrino does not include the Celeron M processor, the lower cost laptops can not carry the Centrino mark, and thus will have no incentive to employ Intel’s wireless chips. Intel’s own greed pushes them to restrict Centrino to Pentium M, the more expensive processor, thus negating a large portion of the advantage they could have built. Of course, the author doesn’t quite note that Intel doesn’t want to sell more Celeron M’s, when the main competition will be their own more expensive processors. As I’ve pointed out in my post on octane ratings, while marketing tries to push you to higher octane gasoline in cars that don’t need it, there is no advantage for most consumers.
Last, but not least, in one of the comments to that post, a commentor says this:
I guess my problem with Centrino is how the big computer companies are getting completely suckered by it. You can scarcely find a notebook with a p4 anymore, they are all pentium M now. Even Dells xps2 gaming notebook (notice the word gaming, not uber mobile, GAMING) has a wimpy pentium M processor. I hate seeing a well built machine great specs then to notice that the processor is a wimpy 1.6GHz, thats just annoying.
That’s just false. Tom’s Hardware just completed a significant benchmarking test comparing Pentium M and Pentium 4. Pentium M is clock-for-clock faster than Pentium 4. I.e. a 2 GHz Pentium M processor will outperform a 2 GHz Pentium 4 by a large margin. All while consuming much less power. The average computer buyer looks at one thing in a new PC, clock speed. That’s pointless, because things such as RAM, cache size on the processor, front side bus speed, are all much more likely to be a performance bottleneck on low-cost PC’s than the processor.
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Yeah, I’ve always been amused when people talk about this blazing fast processor they have but then show their complete ignorance when I ask about their RAM, etc.
Also, for what it’s worth, I haven’t had any compatibility problems with my laptop, although most of my experience has been with linksys routers. I’m not sure why they’re so popular around here, but it seems like almost everyone with a home network has them. The only issues I’ve had has been setting up our family’s desktop to run off of a wireless USB adapter. And that was an all linksys operation, strangely enough.