Intel Asia-Pacific has taken the plunge into e-commerce with a Web-based sales application that has so far exceeded the vendor's revenue expectations.
In Australia, Intel reported that it is not fully up to speed with online ordering and other services for local assemblers, but as a result of the success being experienced elsewhere, it is ramping up efforts to deliver a similar capability.
A spokesperson for Intel Australia said the results reported this week by John Davies, vice president and general manager of Intel Asia-Pacific, indicate that there is obviously a willingness and readiness for assemblers and integrators to conduct business in this manner and it intends to foster it.
The vendor first began taking orders from Asia Pacific OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers and distributors over the Web four months ago, and now Intel expects to conduct $US2.5 billion worth of sales over the Internet by the end of the year, Davies said.
That amount far exceeds Intel's original expectation that its e-commerce initiative would yield $US1 billion in sales by the end of 1998.
Looking ahead to 1999, Intel expects to see its volume of online sales grow even faster. Davies predicted that Intel will do between $US10 billion and $US15 billion worth of business over the Internet next year.