Intel is Expected to Become Big Maker of Smart Phone Chip in Five Years

Intel predicted that, in the next five years, Intel will become an important participant in the market of the smart phone chip. In the past 10 years, Intel’s several attempts in this market have failed to succeed.

Intel CFO Stacy Smith said: “Intel is not satisfied to be a small company in the market. This is a market in which the shipments reach one billion, so it is a great opportunity for us.”

Intel announced that the company’s smart phone chip is accepted by 5 customers. The first mobile phone product which uses Intel chip has gone to the market in India. Intel hopes to make the advantages of the PC market go down to the smart phone market.

Smith said the launching of product this week means that Intel finally enters into this market. He said: “A week ago, our market share is 0. But this week we will start, because the first phone is going to be sold.”

Although the business of mobile phone chip will not bring substantial contribution to the performance of Intel in 2012, Smith estimated that the business will be given “meaningful sales” at this time next year. He said: “Five years later, we hope to gain great market shares.” However, Smith declined to predict the specific data.

The Lava International in India is the first company to launch the mobile phone with the Intel chip, and this is a XOLO X900 Android phone.

Orange, Motorola Mobile, Lenovo and ZTE also plan to introduce Intel’s mobile processors. Intel had also announced the cooperation with Nokia and LG Electronics, but the two companies have not yet launched mobile phone products with Intel processors.

Qualcomm is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of baseband processor, and it also produces the application processor. Other participants in this market include Texas Instruments and Nvidia. In addition, Apple itself designs the application processor and Samsung electronics is responsible for manufacturing. The chips launched by Intel include the application processor and the baseband processor.

According to the data of IDC, the global handset shipments in 2012 are expected to be 1.7 billion, an increase of 8.2%. And smart phone shipments will grow nearly 34 %. This growth rate is much higher than the PC market, while the latter is still the main source of revenue for Intel.