San Francisco (CA) - People will determine form and function of new products Intel plans to introduce in the future. Technology will have to be tightly fitted around the specific needs of users in different geographies and cultures to enable a new wave of growth of devices for the digital home.

When technology enters the intimate space of the home, pure performance or technical features will not be decisive factors that decide over success or failure of a new product. Instead, Intel believes we are entering a phase where users and cultural characteristics become increasingly important in the process of the creation and development of a new technology and product.

Genevieve Bell, in charge of ethnography research at Intel, said at the Intel Developer Forum that a more and more important question is how technology can be "humanized." While Intel claims that it has been researching customer’s needs for more than 10 years, the human factor will play a more vital role to "help" Intel "understand" actual needs of existing and potentially new customers.

Intel’s announcement to look closer at its customers is especially important in the light of the intent to go after new customers in emerging markets. According to Bell, needs in other geographies can be very different from what US users expect from their technology. And according to CEO Paul Otellini, Intel will put more and more effort into reaching this new customer base. More than 200 million PCs will be sold in traditional markets this year, but there is very little explosive growth potential left for a company whose business is built on selling more and more chips. While for the US market is quickly turning into a market that is focused on replacement sales, there is only a 4.4 percent penetration of PCs in emerging markets, according to Otellini. He left no doubt that the company will aggressively pursue this new growth opportunity.

One example for this strategy is a "community" PC that is specifically designed for such markets and rural environments. For example, case openings of the computer are equipped with filters to keep sand, dust and bugs out of the inside. The prototype device also can be directly connected to a car battery, which will deliver enough power to run such a PC for multiple hours during a power outage. According to Otellini, people in emerging markets have car batteries available in ample quantities.

Back here at home, Intel updated its vision for the future digital home. The company believes that Entertainment PCs will serve as a hub for all digital content needs for a family. Content can be distributed either via Wi-Fi or powerlines - a technology that Intel re-discovered after it had distanced itself from this approach a few years ago. According to Don McDonald, vice president of the firm’s digital home division, powerlines may deliver a bandwidth of about 70 Mbit per second - enough for about three simultaneous HD video streams. Example scenarios laid out by Intel resembled futuristic scenes reminiscent of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "Total Recall" as well as a possible future lifestyle of a family that embraces Intel’s digital home vision : Huge screens that can display a natural landscape scenario and remote access to features such as home automation and communication features or GPS as well as a family in which every family member uses a different and their own device to consume digital audio and video.