Analysis: What's hardware giant doing in software services?

Intel in India seems to be making a quiet  sideways lurch from hardware to sofware: DNA reports that the chip leader has submitted an application to the (Indian) Foreign Investment Promotion Board, to start a ‘computer consultancy service’ and ‘software supply service’. 
Intel India has been into software even earlier – it obtained its first FIPB licence for a Rs 990 million investment in software development in May 2001 – but that was essentially for its in-house needs. The new application seems to be for the delivery of software services.

While it may be far fetched to conclude that Intel could or would want to ‘take on Infosys’, the development is nevertheless interesting for trend watchers and signals the emerging compulsions of the hardware business: the need to integrate tightly with software and offer an integrated solution -- as well as related services.
Only weeks ago, when Intel announced that it was to acquire Net security software leader McAfee, we at IndiaTechOnline suggested that it was consistent with customer demands for a single solution embracing hardware, software, applications and security, all bundled together – possibly on a single slab of silicon. We said: “Hardware-enhanced software – that’s the new name of the game, at Intel”
And if Intel were to decide to have more than a foot in the software tent – what better place to start, than in the country where software rules, in the ecosystem of technologies on tap?

Intel's McAfee acquisition plans...an IndiaTechOnline analysis with IDC, Ovum comments http://www.indiatechonline.com/intels--mcafee-acquisition-61.php  
Intel to take on Infosys, to set up software business http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_intel-to-take-on-infosys-to-set-up-software-business_1454662  
 October 19 2010