For all players in the PC area, chip vendors and systems houses alike, the United States is a mature market, offering nowhere near the kind of percentage growth available a decade ago. But Asia remains a largely untapped market, where most people have yet to purchase their first PC.

An added twist is that, in contrast with the affluent domestic market where gilt-edged processors have been eagerly snapped up, Intel sees cheaper, more stripped-down designs as an important component of its overseas push.

Indeed, Intel sees a market of upwards of 130 million people who could be ready to buy soon. "These are all people who are just moving into the space of being able to afford computing," Sean Maloney, the general manager on Intel's sales and marketing group, said at the Spring Analyst event. "We believe the majority of those people will buy notebooks."

To take advantage of the perceived strong overseas demand, Intel is offering a sometimes confusing amalgam of notebook, plain-old PC, and new, lighter-weight mobile platforms. There's a low-cost PC platform. Separately, in what seems like a response to MIT's $100 One Laptop Per Child push, Intel has designed a $300 "Classmate PC." It's a laptop with a Celeron processor, 2-Gbyte flash drive, and a 7-inch screen.

Also on tap is Silverthorne, a chip which seems to have several roles. Intel mostly talks about it as a standalone processor which will power UMPC and handheld Web browsers. However, since Otellini characterized it as having "circa 2003/4 mainstream mobile performance," it could clearly find its way into low-cost notebooks aimed at emerging markets

There also are many traditional style notebook platforms on the way (see next section).

Intel also sees notebook sales growing in the United States, where it says that current penetration is less than "half a notebook per household." Accordingly, it's planning a bunch of new laptop platforms.

	(click image for larger view) Santa Rosa is the next-generation Centrino notebook platform. view the image gallery

"We will introduce our fourth-generation Centrino next week [week of May 6]. It's a platform code-named Santa Rosa," said Otellini. Santa Rosa features the new Merom processor, but in 802.11n wireless, integrated graphics, and Intel's new turbo memory. Otellini said he expects a very steep ramp-up for Santa Rosa, and said it will constitute a majority of Intel's notebook shipments in fairly short order.

The Montevina laptop platform will follow in 2008. Equipped with a 45-nanometer, dual-core processor, it's perhaps most notable for its mix-and-match wireless. Montevina will have both standard Wi-Fi and the newer WiMax, which Intel is continuing to emphasize in hopes it will soon move into position as the dominant wireless standard of choice.