Intel praises Apple, touts Viiv

While singing the praises of Apple, industry heavyweight Intel finds itself in the delicate position of touting open standards and calling for Japanese consumer-electronics makers to build around Intel's own Viiv platform for PCs running Microsoft's Windows operating system. The Viiv platform offers a set of specs that integrate PCs with digital home devices, such as TVs, music players, and other CE devices. Hoping to further development around the new platform, the company tried to encourage the industry to adopt open standards without threatening the turf of its new partner, Apple. Eric Kim, the senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Home Group, praised Apple and its success in integrating computers and consumer electronics with its iPod/iTunes ecosystem, which use proprietary standards, but called for the industry to adopt open-standards around its own Viiv platform, according to IDG News Service.

"Clearly, Apple's orientation is to deliver the best possible user experience from end-to-end by being closed. That's what they do and they are very, very good at it," Kim said, praising Apple's ability to produce products that are easy to use, despite the complex technology that lies underneath. The executive's comments were made on the opening day of the Ceatec exhibition in Chiba, Japan.

"We have a little motto inside Intel, 'Let Apple, be Apple.' We are happy to serve them," he said. While the company supplies Core-based processors and other chips to Apple, Intel hopes that it can foster the development of a new ecosystem within the industry built around its own Viiv technology, something Apple has chosen not to adopt.

Urging companies to make convergence a feature of more consumer-electronics products, Kim called Japanese electronics manufacturers "the most innovative" in the industry, according to the report.

"By keeping standards open, manufacturers help insure that users can move their content seamlessly between devices from different manufacturers, regardless of where the content came from," he said., "At the end of the day, consumers want choice."

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