I wrote a month ago about Intel / AMD / Nvidia and Intels strategie in different sectors.

Now, Intel is skipping its marketing strategie ‘Viiv’ - which represent its multimedia-oriented PC. Because as it seems that nobody knows (after 1 1/2 year of running that campaign) what values do have Viiv PC’s for the customer/end-user!?

According to Intel’s marketing materials, Viiv is a “premier brand” for PCs “designed for digital entertainment.” It’s “complemented by services and applications that have been verified to work with Viiv technology,” so you can access movies, music and games through your computer. But every PC these days is designed for digital entertainment. And everyone is using software and services for movies, music and games. Viiv comes off as a bald-faced attempt to sell expensive chips to people who don’t know any better. Source.

Analysts believe that weak perception of Intel Viiv and Intel vPro among targeted audiences is a consequence of Intel’s failure to determine exact benefits that the appropriate platforms offer. If Intel Centrino is associated with long battery life and wireless Internet, whereas Intel Core 2 is known for high performance, then Viiv and vPro have never been considered as ultimate entertainment or advanced business PCs.

In addition to relatively weak branding campaign for Viiv and vPro, computer makers were generally reluctant to employ the new brand-names, as all of the PC suppliers nowadays have their own product lineups aimed at different types of customers and, for example, Dell would not like “Intel Viiv” to prevail over “Dell Dimension”. Source.

Other storys about TV and Entertainment PC:

Can anyone get the connected home right?

TV Measurement Comes Up Short

In my opinion - this marketing failure doesn’t mean the world for Intel and didn’t cost a fortune. They will try even harder to establish its brand Intel in the entertainment sector. But they learned a valuable lesson - when customers/distributors don’t perceive your innovative product and can’t see any real value or advantage to the old fashioned product … they don’t buy it. And regarding Apple TV - they are trying to sell it via their own chains. Intel tried to sell it via company’s like Dell and HP - they had to develop completely new products for a partly new use. And all the costs which are involved for a market which isn’t yet really developed - and convergence didn’t occured yet in that marketspace.

I think we need 2-3 years until the geek evolution occured and the people feel a need for an all-in-one product which is under the 42″ LCD TV and can do (and communicate to) nearly everything.

Nice to read also; More people want to blend Internet and TV, research shows. Which speaks about

Consumer acceptance of the TV as part of the digital entertainment environment is driving a host of new living room products and services. Apple’s (AAPL) Apple TV aims at that market, as do Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Media Center and Xbox 360. 

and when you read through the research - Intel didn’t got it right. It seems that Intel has a good product but did it the wrong way to sell it. And margins are not yet there either.

So long, MJ.