By Patrick Avenell
SYDNEY, NSW: Intel Australia was last night on the defensive, with local GM Philip Cronin and visiting Intel VP Mooley Eden first dodging questions and then shutting down a press conference after a number of scything questions surrounding Intel’s new Insider product.
Intel Insider is the result of a collaboration between the world’s premier microprocessor developer and leading Hollywood studios. This product enables users to stream secure HD video files on a pay-per-view basis. After first prevaricating when asked about this “dark side” to the latest releases, both Eden and Cronin first mocked the questions asking them if they were selling out to studios to prevent piracy, and then failed to provide an answer when asked if Intel could monitor which users were continuing to illegally access content.
Cronin, noticeably frustrated with the line of questioning, then shut down the Q&A session, telling the crowd of 350 that he would take no more questions on that topic.
This tension came after Eden’s 60-minute presentation of Intel’s latest products. Eden was obviously not expecting such a negative backlash to the new range, as his speech was littered with requests for applause and laughter from the mostly fidgety audience.
As for Intel’s new hero product, Sandy Bridge, all the hullaballoo could have been avoided by letting the processer speak for itself. It is an incredible piece of manufacturing, one that will advance the operating power of PCs exponentially.
A number of hardware manufacturers present at the showcase, including Sony, Samsung and Toshiba, previewed new models featuring this chipset — and the performance of these models, many of them prototypes, was phenomenal.
Related Stories
Intel and friends to launch 2011 PC generation tomorrow