The Intel CEO said the first smartphones running on Intel's Atom "Medfield" platform will launch this week, with reports saying the devices from Lava will be sold in India.
The first
smartphone running on an Intel processor will hit the market later this week,
reportedly in India.
Speaking
to reporters and analysts in a conference call to announce the giant chip
maker's first-quarter financial results, Intel CEO Paul Otellini outlined the
key points the company expects to hit as 2012 wears onparticularly in the
mobile spacefrom more than 100 new Ultrabook designs to more devices powered
by next-generation "Ivy Bridge" processors.
"We
expect to see another important milestone for our business later this week: the
launch of the world's first Intel architecture-based smartphone," Otellini
said.
He noted
the announcements Intel executives made with Lenovo and
Motorola
Mobility at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, in which the two
device makers said they planned to sell smartphones this year powered by
Intel's Atom X2460 "Medfield" platform. At the Mobile World Congress
show in February, Intel made similar announcements
with
ZTE and Orange.
Otellini
declined to elaborate on what the new phone would be. However, according to
reports, the phone will come from Lava International and will be available in
India. Quoting an unnamed source,
IDG
News said the Xolo X900 will be powered by a single Atom Z2460 chip and
feature a 4.03-inch screen. Intel and Lava initially announced the phone during
the Mobile World Congress show.
For the
quarter, Intel made $2.7 billion in the first three months of 2012 on revenue
of $12.9 billion. By comparison, during the same period last year, Intel earned
$3.16 billion on $12.85 billion in revenue. Revenue for Intel's PC Client
Groupwhich includes chips for PCs, tablets and smartphonesfell from $8.62
billion in the first quarter of 2011 to $8.45 billion this year, and its Data
Center Group, which sells server chips, saw its revenue stay flat, at $2.45
billion.
Mobility
was a key theme running throughout the discussion of Intel's first-quarter
financial numbers. Company officials for more than a year have talked about
making an aggressive push into the mobile computing space, challenging chip
designer ARM Holdings' dominance in the lucrative smartphone and tablet
markets. This will be the year that Intel makes that push.
The chip
maker over the next few months will roll out more 22-nanometer Ivy Bridge chips
that will be used to power the next round of Ultrabooks and make their way into
tablets. In addition, the Atom Medfield chips also will be found in some
tablets, as well as smartphones, according to the company.
The Ivy
Bridge chipsthe first quad-core versions already are shipping in volume,
primarily for desktops, and will be followed by other versions for laptops and
Ultrabooksare expected to offer better performance and significantly greater
power efficiency and graphics capabilities than the current "Sandy
Bridge" offerings.
Beau
Skonieczny, an analyst with Technology Business Research (TBR), said the Ivy
Bridge chips will be key drivers for Intel in 2012, even as the uncertainty
continues to dog Intel-based Ultrabooks and mobile devices.
"[T]he
quad-core iterations of Ivy Bridge will appeal mostly to enterprises and SMB
customers looking to adopt all-in-one desktops," Skonieczny wrote in an
email. "However, TBR believes dual-core Ivy Bridge processorswhich will
shortly follow the quad-core versionswill drive more rapid growth for Intel,
as demand for notebooks and premium Ultrabooks continues to grow."
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