For those of you who thought Intel didn't have the architecture to compete in the phone business...think again. They're just getting started. And when Merrifield arrives it's going to be very hard for the OEMs to resist building phones on Intel sillicon.
Couple that with the launch of Bay Trail for tablets this year and things are about to get very interesting for the ARM players. I anticipate by the time we exit 2014 Intel will have gone from 0 to double digit share in tablets and and at least 5-10% of the smartphone market.
2 comments:
It's not that simple.
Intel will have to compete on cost also, because profit is number 1. If phone ODMs stand to even make $2 less per phone due to BOM then they may think twice choosing one chip over another.
Add to the fact that much of platform performance depends on software. Note the very wide performance spread between Intel phones of different brands made with the same chip. It's not the chip that's making the difference there.
See HTC One benchmarks- The numbers got a big lift because of this new Qualcomm chip. Things are going to continually be close.
While I don't disagree with your premise that cost is a factor, right now Intel is not even in the consideration set due to their history of being unable to bring the right performance and thermals.
This says they are in the game. It's a matter of time they are able to bring a design that maximizes the cost efficiency of their manufacturing scale. They have a new tablet SOC coming this year. Next year a new phone design follows. They are getting in the game faster than some would have thought.
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