Since turning down the opportunity to manufacture chips for the original iPhone, Intel has had problems breaking into the mobile industry. Go ahead, try to name a smartphone or tablet that has one of Intel’s processor inside.
But that doesn’t mean it’s giving up. In its latest move to try to break into the mobile space, Intel has hired former Apple VP Mike Bell to head up a new ‘smart devices’ team, a group tasked with turning cool technology into products… Read More
We have reached the end of an era. No, I’m not talking about David Beckham retiring. I’m talking about Paul Otellini stepping down as Intel’s CEO. He was at the company for more than 40 years, and was its chief executive for the better half of the last decade.
As part of his departure proceedings, Otellini sat down for a candid exit interview with The Atlantic. And while the whole thing is worth a read, there’s one part that is particularly interesting: when he talks about how he regrets not landing the iPhone deal… Read More
Apple, along with Google and five other Silicon Valley technology heavy-weights, has won a court order blocking a potentially devastating class-action antitrust lawsuit concerning alleged anti-poaching conspiracy.
Bloomberg reported that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh Friday denied class action certification over accusations that said companies illegally conspired not to recruit one another’s employees, which the plaintiffs said resulted in their incomes being held down by their employers… Read More
Another report surfaced this morning that gives us more reasons to believe that Apple is indeed looking to diversify its chip making contracts which thus far have been an exclusive Samsung domain. The somewhat accurate Asian trade publication DigiTimes quoted “institutional investors” who believe that chip giant Intel has been contracted to produce about ten percent of Apple’s planned capacity for a next-generation iPhone and iPad processor, the A7 chip.
Moreover, Apple is apparently spreading those orders across Samsung, Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Samsung will reportedly build about half of Apple’s A7 orders, TSMC should take care of an additional 40 percent while Intel will get the remaining ten percent of orders. Rumor mills have been reporting for at least a year that Apple has been looking to move its chip biz away from rival Samsung, which currently builds all iPhone, iPad and iPod processors at its Austin, Texas plant… Read More
A report Wednesday revives the old rumor that the world’s leading chip maker, Intel, is working on a strategic deal to manufacture processors that power Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPods.
What’s different this time around, though, is the timing: Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini is on his way out and with CEO search still underway, the semiconductor giant could be poised to take its relationship with Apple to the next level.
The gist of the report is that Apple could contract Intel as a foundry, meaning the chip giant would tap its world-class manufacturing expertise to produce iPhone and iPad processors, as designed in-house by Apple, rather than persuade Tim Cook & Co. into adopting Intel’s own mobile Atom x86 chip architecture, which hasn’t made much inroads yet… Read More
If Apple is really planning on revolutionizing the TV business, it may want to hurry up and do so before Intel beats it to the punch. Confirming rumors from earlier this year, the company’s Media VP Erik Huggers said today that it’s working on a set-top box.
But that’s not all. In addition to the new hardware, Huggers says that Intel is also working with ‘the entire industry’ to bring a new Internet TV service—an all-in-one solution that will incorporate live TV, catch-up TV and on-demand TV—to the market… Read More
Actor Ashton Kutcher who stars in jOBS, the upcoming indie biopic about Apple’s late co-founder, will kick off MacWorld Expo, now known as iWorld. The conference runs January 31 – February 2 in San Francisco’s Moscone West. Kutcher will take the main stage on January 31 at 9am to kick off the three-day conference and talk about the flick, which is scheduled to hit theaters in April after its debut at the legendary Sundance Film Festival later this month… Read More
The days when PCs ruled the computer market are quickly coming to a close. The familiar battle between PCs and Macs is quickly morphing into an iOS versus Android landscape. As consumers opt for tablets over PCs, shipments of Wintel devices will drop to 65 percent in 2013 amid double-digit tablet growth.
After PC shipments fell 10 percent during the holiday fourth quarter of 2010, the 2013 PC marketshare will drop to 65 percent, down from 72 percent last year, according to researchers at Canalys. The reason: PCs – be they desktops, notebooks, or netbooks – are no longer needed for common computing tasks, such as reading e-mail and browsing the web… Read More
Yesterday, news broke that chip giant Intel, frustrated with “everyone doing a half-assed Google TV”, is prepping its own set-top box and cable service for an introduction at the CES show, which runs January 8-11 (iDB will be there!). The report noted Intel “has a plan to overcome licensing hurdles” by rolling out the TV service gradually, on a city-by-city basis.
Today, The Wall Street Journal throws its proverbial credibility behind the rumor, but also explains that Intel, just like Apple, has found that Hollywood is proving to be a much tougher nut to crack… Read More
The world’s leading chip maker Intel, which supplies processors for Apple’s Mac notebooks and desktops, is reportedly prepping to launch its rumored virtual cable TV service and set-top box because the company was frustrated with “everyone doing a half-assed Google TV so it’s going to do it themselves and do it right”, according to sources that spoke with TechCrunch.
Intel allegedly “has a plan to overcome licensing hurdles” that Apple reportedly has been facing for some time in its attempts to woo big-budget Hollywoood studios. The semiconductor giant will apparently roll out the service on a city-by-city basis rather than nationwide, opting to cut content deals on a per-market basis.
Apple, of course, has long been rumored to be testing prototypes of a full-fledged 46 to 55-inch television sets as the living room remains “an area of intense interest” for the Cupertino giant… Read More
Seen above is the iSiri, the intriguing iWatch concept we recently shared. Plenty more iWatch concepts are circulating around the web as watchers increasingly believe Apple will some day enter the wearable computing space. Patent filings indicate as much and last December The New York Times reported that Apple was working on a Siri-controlled add-on that interfaces with the iPhone. And now, the German blog Mobile Geeks relays a Chinese site rumor claiming Apple and Intel are collaborating on an Apple-branded Bluetooth smart watch set for releases some time next year…
As crazy as things have been getting between Apple and Samsung in their ongoing patent war, you knew it was only a matter of time before the fight spilled outside of the court room. We continue to hear rumors and reports that Apple is looking to move away from the Korean company as a component manufacturer — it’s already doing this with displays, and could soon start doing it with processors… Read More
Intel, the world’s #1 chip maker, has been trying and failing for years to replicate its PC leadership status in mobile. Today, the company issued an unexpected update, saying its long-time CEO Paul Otellini will be retiring in May 2013. Though the semiconductor giant insists this is just “an orderly leadership transition”, Otellini’s successor has not been named and Intel said it will consider internal and external candidates for the job. Intel currently supplies processors for Apple’s Macs, but that could change if the rumor-mill is to be trusted… Read More
When Apple CEO Tim Cook last week fired abrasive iOS chief Scott Forstall, he also appointed the company’s un-retired hardware engineering boss Bob Mansfield as the leader of the new Technologies group, which combines all of Apple’s wireless and semiconductor teams. And in an email to employees announcing the management changes, Cook hinted that Technologies “have some very ambitious plans”. But what could these plans be, apart from designing new processors for iOS devices, which is what Mansfield and his team have been doing for years now?
You’re not thinking big enough. How about a transition away from Intel processors across the Mac lineup? But why on Earth engage in such a risky brain transplant? Aren’t the chip giant’s processors good enough for Macs? If “people familiar with the company’s research” are correct, Apple is secretly (well, not anymore) been seeking ways to one day take the processors it designed in-house for the iOS product family and put them inside Macs… Read More
Chip giant Intel is working on a new technology for its 2013 Ultrabook portable platform that is said to incorporate wireless charging between notebooks and mobile devices, per a new report out of Asia based on sources from the upstream supply chain.
As MacBooks use Intel’s chips, Apple could adopt this upcoming technology from Intel to enable wireless charging between future MacBooks and your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch… Read More
Since I started following the iPhone daily buzz I am constantly reminded by how passionate and devout the community covering the device can be. So devout that the moment someone predicts the future of an unreleased iPhone, the rest of the bloggers rush to validate the claim.
CNET reports that an analyst from Rodman and Renshaw claims that Apple’s next generation phone will offer up support for both 3G technology and the futuristic LTE (Long Term Evolution) platform which is being touted as “4G” technology. Ashok Kumar said the following about the switch: Read More
A few weeks back we posted articles detailing Intel’s acquiring of Infineon, the smartphone chip maker who has supplied every single iPhone baseband chip. Surely this meant that Apple’s beloved phone would be running Intel inside their next iPhone come next summer. Not so fast.
According to Apple Insider the Commercial Times reports that Infineon will not supply the Apple with the baseband chip for the iPhone 5. Instead, the chip will be manufactured by the Hon Hai Group and Foxconn… Read More
In early August iDB reported that Intel was looking at buying chip manufacturer Infineon Technologies. Last night the 1.4 billion dollar acquisition was solidified according to 9 to 5 Mac.
Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, said the following regarding the purchase:
The acquisition of Infineon’s WLS (Wireless Solutions) business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy–Internet connectivity–and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options from Wi-Fi and 3G to WiMax and LTE (4G)… Read More
Computerworld is reporting that the tycoon chip company Intel, is leading the pack of potential buyers of the German semiconductor company, Infineon Technologies. It goes without saying, (but I’ll say it anyway), that this would be a nice payday for the company. Samsung and Broadcom have also shown interest.
Currently, Infineon produces chips for some iPhones and the iPads. Blackberry, Samsung, and Nokia are all buyers and users of the German company as well. In case you crawled out from under the a rock this morning, that’s a LOT of cellphones. While nothing comes painless when making a gigantic deal (platform differences in Europe), the risks are believed to be outweighed by the benefits.
It’s no secret that Intel has been figuring out a way to get themselves into the lucrative smartphone game, and it seems like buying the farm is their best shot at milking the cow.
