Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Intel Smartphone Ambitions Stunted by Nokia Withdrawal

Nokia's move to the Windows Phone OS took the "wind" out of possible volume sales of Intel smartphone chips this year, but the chip maker has moved on, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said this week.

Intel is now redirecting resources to recruit other wireless carriers and phone makers to adopt its upcoming low-power Atom smartphone chip code-named Medfield, Otellini said on a conference call Tuesday.

Intel was hoping to see smartphones with its chips starting in the second half this year. Otellini said he would be disappointed if Intel-based phones were not available in 12 months. He did not comment on the smartphone companies Intel was pursuing, but analysts on Wednesday said that the chip maker could be pursuing smaller regional phone makers, and perhaps larger phone makers such as LG.

Intel has had no success so far in the smartphone space. The company currently offers a low-power Atom smartphone chip code-named Moorestown, which has found no adopters. Intel and Nokia last year partnered on the development of the Meego OS for mobile devices, but Nokia in February abandoned the OS to establish a future smartphone strategy around Microsoft's Windows Phone OS. Windows Phone OS does not work on Intel's chips, and Otellini said the crumbling of the partnership has forced Intel to pursue other companies to adopt Medfield.

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