Intel has consolidated its mobile efforts into a single business unit, its latest attempt to propel its chips into phones and tablets.
According to a report by Fortune, the new “mobile and communications” group within Intel will be led by Mike Bell and Hermann Eul, consolidating the mobile communications, netbook and tablet, mobile wireless, and ultra mobility.
If anything, Bell’s experience speaks for itself: with 16 years at Apple developing projects like the iPhone, he then went on to Palm, where he helped develop the Palm Pre. When Intel brought Bell over in July 2010, the company made entering the smartphone business Bell’s focus. And after Anand Chandrasekher abruptly departed in March, Bell was promoted to co-manage the Ultra Mobility Group that Chandrasekher once led.
Eul’s background is murkier. According to Eul’s LinkedIn profile, he served as president and managing director of Intel Mobile Comminication, Intel’s German business. Eul also was part of the board at Infineon.
Fortune’s analysis is spot on, though: however Intel reorganizes, reenergizes, or recommits, the problem persists: until Intel can effectively compete with ARM and the low-power, relatively low-margin designs it licenses to companies like Nvidia, Qualcomm, and others, Intel’s future in the phone and tablet market is dim. One bright point appears to be the ultrabook, blessed by Apple with its MacBook Air, and now apparently poised to descend upon the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month by a number of traditional OEMs.
In October, Intel confirmed that it was moving away from the TV, shortly after the company announced it was discontinuing development of the MeeGo operating system it had developed with Nokia, in favor of an open-source OS, Tizen, that it had co-developed with Samsung.
Source PC Mag.Com
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