How do you think the entertainment industry is adjusting to the disruption in the market, with content increasingly available online?

There is a lot of business disruption on as people to figure out what is optimal for consumers, what’s the business model and backend for online content distribution. A lot of things are happening. Clickstar is just one example. You see this with Disney, i-pod, things are moving. I think it’s an exciting time to be a consumer at the moment.

If you go back to the i-pod example; you could buy an mp3 player before you could by an i-pod. But i-pod put together all of the right pieces. They even challenged the notion of will people even pay for this because you could get it for free. You could essentially steal it. Apple said we will charge for it.

It changed the whole market approach from the industry who thought online means people who steal. That’s not the case. There is a legitimate business model there, and a good business revenue opportunity, you just have to find the correct one.

Can you expand on Intels’ role in developing connected home technologies?

Intel has multiple technologies and multiple initiatives that are covering the full gammut of what can happen in the connected home. First and foremost is our processor technology in our PC platform. We’re putting the pieces together so that our consumers can have a great digital entertainment experience. We have multiport technology coming into play, with our dual port technology processors.

In the next year Intel will deliver a new consumer brand called VIIV that will allow consumers to easily identify an on-the-shelf PC which has been optimised for digital entertainment. It will have the right hardware, software, and will offer connectivity out based on standards like DLNA and DTCP. It will allow consumers to connect out to a broad range of devices.

Our digital home group encompasses many more groups within Intel. We have a whole group that works with set top boxes that our consumer electronics groups to make sure that the silicon in there is also based on Intel technology.

You can go from really standard feature set top boxes to full feature boxes that all have Intel technology. We are doing things with display technology that will allow our consumers to have a much better visual experience on digital TV, so the colours will be much brighter and more vibrant.

So we have all these things going on from a base technology perspective, from set top boxes to PC platforms to initiatives that we drive in the home like DLNA. We are a very strong supporter of open standards DLNA, DTCP, home plug for wireless network, Wimax for wireless networking a full range to facilitate the Connected Home.

Last but not least, we do a lot of things around services. We have a lot of efforts focused on how we develop online services to provide consumers with really compelling choices for entertainment.

We have also announced a joint venture with Clickstar that will offer theatrical Hollywood movie releases online the same time they are available in the theatre. It’s a really great opportunity for the industry, as well as consumers who will be able to stay at home and watch films It ‘s an amazing piece of technology that will spur others on. If you look at what is happening, consumers are staying home buying big flat panel screens, creating home cinemas.

It is also a business disruptor in some regards. It changes the business model. It’s obviously an online, but I can’t reveal any further information about that right now. But look for some announcements coming out later in 2006.