Intel is off to a bad start in the mobile market, and might not get to recover

No matter how hard Intel is trying, things don’t seem to go too well for them in the mobile market. According to sources quoted by Digitimes, the sales of the Intel-based smartphones aren’t going so well, and now two of their main partners, Motorola and Lenovo, are delaying their own Medfield-based tablets (and probably phones as well) at least until November.
At that point, we’ll probably be too impressed by the new Android 5.0 Nexus devices, featuring chips like the S4 Pro, Exynos 5250 and even OMAP 5, to care for Medfield phones running Jelly Bean. So things aren’t looking too bright for Intel in the future, either. But why is Intel, such a big company with a huge war chest, and a leader in the (x86) chip market, having such a hard time entering the mobile market?
Just because a company utterly dominates a certain market, it doesn’t mean that it will be successful in other markets by default. Throwing money at the problem will do nothing, if Intel can’t create a chip that is competitive against ARM’s mobile designs.
There are other things to consider, such as the fact that ARM has a unique business model, where there are a lot of ARM chip makers, all competing with each other and on price. As a result, ARM is very hard to beat, because Intel isn’t fighting just one company like AMD, but a whole bunch of ARM chip makers at once. Plus, why would phone makers give away the flexibility and power they get from the status quo, and risk getting locked by Intel, like PC manufacturers?
So, why would a manufacturer go with an Intel chip, if it doesn’t offer any technical advantages over ARM chips? Should they go with Intel just because of its brand recognition? The Intel name means nothing in the mobile market, and most end users don’t know what chip their phone has, nor do they care.
Intel plans to release a Clover Trail dual-core chip for the end of the year and the Windows 8 launch, but that’s not a “mobile” chip like Medfield. It’s a lot less power efficient, going up to 8-10W TDP. This chip is definitely not meant for Android tablets, but for Windows 8 ones. On Android tablets, it would be painfully obvious how low the battery life is compared to other ARM tablets. But on Windows, Intel can at least say they enable desktop apps, and they need the extra oomph for running Windows.
On Android, I don’t think Intel has any chance to get popular anymore, and if Windows 8 fails in the market, things will go downhill fast for both Microsoft and Intel.
SOURCES DigiTimes
TAGS ARMExynos 5250intelLenovoMedfieldMotorolaOMAP 5S4 ProTegra 3


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Intel plans to port Jelly Bean to Atom-based gadgets, no ETA announced just yet

The Verge
Intel, the world’s number one supplier of PC processors, has neglected getting in the Android game until a few months ago, thus allowing ARM to easily dominate the market. The Santa Clara-based company is now finally looking to make a push in the Android world, and, while its first steps might seem a bit hesitant, its future plans are pretty bold.
There might not be many Intel-based Android gadgets available for sale right now, but, according to official claims, they will soon get Jelly Bean updates. The news comes from the guys at PCWorld, who’ve had a very short talk with Suzy Greenberg, one of Intel’s spokespersons.
According to Greenberg, “Intel continues to work closely with Google to enable future versions of Android, including Jelly Bean, on our family of low power Atom processors.” Naturally, Intel’s spokeswoman “neglected” to announce any kind of timeframe for the Android 4.1 updates, which should help cool off some of the enthusiasm generated by the news.
It’s also worth noting that before current Intel-based gadgets will be able to take the leap to Jelly Bean, they’ll first need to be upgraded to Android 4.0 ICS. Both the Lava Xolo X900 and the Orange San Diego are running Gingerbread for the time being, which seriously affects their chances to get Jelly Bean by the end of the year.

Ironically, it’s possible some unreleased Intel-based Android devices would get Jelly Bean before the Xolo X900 and the San Diego. We know that Motorola and Vizio have plans to launch Android-based smartphones and tablets powered by Intel’s Medfield platform soon, and there’s a shot, albeit a slim one, that these new devices will come with 4.1 JB out of the box.
As far as Intel’s next-generation Atom chip, Clover Trail, goes, it has zero chances of ever being paired with Jelly Bean, for one simple reason. The new processor will only be powering Microsoft Windows 8 upcoming slates, if we are to believe PCWorld’s usually trustworthy sources.
To recap, Intel is saying that is currently working on Jelly Bean ports for gadgets that haven’t yet received ICS updates, all while tech users don’t seem very interested in the respective devices, due to their limited availability and unattractive specs. On top of it, there’s no news about a next-generation Intel chip for Android gadgets. Okay, can I reconsider that “bold future plans” claim made in the article’s opening paragraph?
SOURCES PC World
TAGS Android 4.1intelIntel AtomIntel MedfieldJelly BeanJelly Bean UpdateOrange San DiegoXolo X900

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