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Why Intel Needs Smartphones More Than They Need Intel

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-the-only-game-in-town dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from ZDNet: "The launch of the Orange San Diego, the first handset using an Intel Atom processor, marks a big milestone for the chipmaker: it's finally in the smartphone market. But does the market need Intel at all? ... Intel's scale and the reach of its other divisions gives [Mike] Bell's smartphone unit a boost; for example, it can reuse code optimizations for Atom done by the desktop team. ... Even so, the smartphone team has got a tough job on its hands — but it's one Intel has to tackle, according to Carolina Milanesi, mobile analyst at Gartner. 'This is certainly an attack strategy for Intel. The smartphone market is so large now that they need a piece of the pie,' she said. But will consumers care whether their handset runs on an Intel chip? Bell conceded that aside from the tech-savvy, most people probably don't know which chip is inside their phone. It's likely, given the lack of advertising on this, that most probably don't care — making Intel's job even harder."

6 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Games? by JanneM · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is games, though; some Android game engines are written in part in native code for the speed boost, and I can't imagine that an Intel phone will shine when forced to emulate an ARM CPU on the fly for those occasions.

    And for most applications, the CPU really does not matter. They'll run nicely on anything able to host the Dalvik VM. At best, an Intel phone will be no different than a ARM one, and at worst it will just add an extra bit of frustration.

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    1. Re:Games? by arbiterxero · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Unless intel is able to bring radical power efficiency. Then, having an intel chip would be sought after. With Cell phones, the battery currently rules the roost.

    2. Re:Games? by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, but that's generally dominated by screen (though I guess the fact that I use the web a good bit, and my last two high-end phones were OLED could be to blame).

      even if the CPU used 0 power, I would gain very little.

      I've had a G1, Nexus1, Comet (it was temporary), and HTC One S for context.

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  2. Why Humans Need Earth by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... more than Earth needs humans and why Microsoft needs PCs more than PCs need Microsoft
    and even *gasp* why mammals need air more than air needs mammals

    Stay tuned for more insightful and thought provoking statements here on El Slashdotto!

  3. always protect the low end by alen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    performance wise ARM is crap compared to Intel. Just like Intel was crap compared to SPARC and all the other architectures they killed off in the last 30 years

    one of the most important rules of business is to protect the low end of your market. if you don't then a competitor will establish a lower margin business and move up to take your high end. Just like Intel did.

    even apple knows this and has products just good enough to keep low end competitors at bay

  4. The first Intel based smartphone launched in 1996 by kroyd · · Score: 5, Informative
    And, it used an Intel 386 cpu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator. It was probably one of the most brick-like GSM phones ever.

    Later Nokia switched to AMD for their 9100, then to ARM for the 9210 series. I bought a 9201i in 2002, I believe I paid t something like 1500usd..

    There were also a few Japanese intel based phones, but those ran Windows XP.. Not really what I would call a smart phone. So, it might be correct to say that this is the "first Intel based smart-phone which might launch in the US".