Intel's New Smartphone Chip Is Key ARM Battle

From PC World: Intel's upcoming Medfield chip will be an acid test of the chip maker's ability to enter the smartphone market and battle ARM, analysts said.

The first smartphones with Intel inside will reach store shelves early next year, according to the company. However, device makers may be wary of Intel's smartphone strategy and its competitiveness against rival ARM, whose processors go into most of the world's smartphones, according to analysts.

Intel's has faced multiple setbacks in its attempts to get its chips into smartphones. In January, Intel said Medfield smartphones would become available in the second half this year, but revised that at last week's Computex show in Taipei, saying the smartphones would instead ship early next year. A cancelled product from LG and an uneasy alliance with Nokia hurt Intel's earlier attempts to bring a smartphone with its chips to market.

Medfield combines an Atom CPU with a number of specialized cores for functions such as graphics acceleration. It will replace Moorestown, a chip Intel designed for smartphones although it was never used in any. LG showed a smartphone based on the chip, the GW990, but cancelled it before it reached production.

For device makers, unproven Intel chips inside phones may be difficult idea to swallow, said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, who also attended Computex.

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