Intel plans to enter mobile phone market
INTEL will attempt to grab a slice of the increasingly lucrative smartphone market with a new super-chip.
It yesterday unveiled a new version of its Atom platform, promising lower power consumption, cheaper cost and smaller size to better target smartphones.
The world’s largest semiconductor company hopes to replicate the success it has seen in the netbook market, in which it has a virtual monopoly.
The firm will also target what it sees as the “expanding” tablet computer market. Last month we revealed the US chipmaker is keen to move into “adjacent markets” after the success of Apple’s iPad tablet computer. The tech giant missed out on the lucrative contract to manufacture chips for the product but sees the market for “smart” chips expanding as people demand more of consumer products.
Intel’s UK director Tristan Wilkinson told City A.M. the firm will, in theory, design chips for “anything with a plug”.
However, it will come up against tough opposition from its rivals in the smartphone market including Nvidia, Marvell and Qualcomm, already making headway with cheaper, low-power processors.
A tie-up between Intel and Nokia is already on the cards after they merged a version of their operating systems earlier this year.
Intel enjoyed a record start to the year, with sales rocketing 44 per cent, dragged upwards by a surge in demand for laptops. In the first three months of 2010 it posted net income of $2.4bn (£1.6bn), well ahead of the $629m posted the previous year.