It appears that Intel really is pushing to get more involved in the mobile industry. Early next year, Lenovo is planning to unveil two new smartphones powered by Intel. The chip maker will be providing both the 64-bit Atom processor and the LTE-advanced modem chips for the Lenovo devices. One of the upcoming smartphones will be positioned for the Chinese market by early February, while the other one will be deployed to emerging mobile markets by early January.
By partnering with Lenovo, Intel has gotten itself a pretty good business deal. China after all is considered by many as the largest smartphone market in the whole world. And as this country quickly transitions into high-speed 4G technology, Intel is definitely in a good position to capitalize.
Two months ago in October, Intel announced its first 4G smartphone for the US market, the Asus PadFone X Mini. While the company has made some waves with this unveiling, it is still miles behind Qualcomm. and MediaTek. It must be noted that Qualcomm currently holds two thirds of the entire market for mobile modems in the world. As for MediaTek, it remains a few steps ahead of Intel when it comes to supplying chips for smartphones and tablets.
Indeed, Intel is facing tough competition in the field of mobile. For years, the company had failed to put much emphasis on penetrating the mobile market, something that it might have regretted, especially now that it is trying to become a player in mobile. Sure, Intel had attained significant success in supplying chips for personal computers and data centers. But in recent years, people have been shifting their attention from personal computers to smartphones, which like it or not, can now do most of the tasks that PCs do. To continue to be relevant, it is imperative that Intel get into the mobile business in order to get back to its winning ways. And boy does the company need to bounce back after losing billions of dollars recently.
Early next year, Intel will introduced its first 4G system-on-a-chip offering under the SoFIA brand name. Such chips include both a modem and a processor, and are highly sought after by smartphone manufacturers due to their small size (smaller than separate radio and processor chips) and power efficiency. If phone makers embrace SoFIA, Intel just might have a chance at contending with Qualcomm’s own Snapdragon system-on-a-chip line of products.
