Intel ready to take on tablet chips
Intel is ready to start cranking out chips for tablets, but is the chip maker moving fast enough to boost its presence in the mobile market?
Intel COO Brian Krzanich told Reuters this week that the company has quickly reworked its fabrication facilities to prep for building tablet chips.
"We will start to see more and more of our capacity and our output go to things that are mobile, like phones and tablets and other devices," Krzanich told Reuters.
While industry analysts say it's a good move for Intel to move into the tablet market, it's going to be more important for the chip maker to gain ground in the burgeoning smartphone market. Read more...
Apple’s purchase of Anobit would give it a leg up on rivals
Apple's buyout of Israel-based solid-state drive (SSD) manufacturer Anobit Technologies will give the company a significant technological boost in the mobile market, and the deal could yield huge cost savings.
Apple is the industry's largest NAND flash consumer, so acquiring Anobit gives it a means of addressing the reliability problems that arise as solid-state memory shrinks in size.
According to published reports, Apple will pay around $500 million for Anobit. It sees the purchase of a NAND flash technology developer as key to its product strategy going forward. The acquisition of Anobit would be Apple's largest purchase since it bought NeXT in 1996. NeXT, which produced high-end workstations, was founded by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs after he was fired from Apple in 1985. Read more...
Android faces more scrutiny as new devices from Samsung and Toshiba appear
Android devices may have taken over the mobile market, but the software running on these Android-powered smartphones and tablets is getting several industry CEOs worked up. It’s the apps developed for Android devices that have become a major topic of discussion for Motorola (MMI) CEO Sanjay Jha, who recently attributed phone performance issues to apps and Android’s open installation process, though the comment was later “cleaned up.” Meanwhile, the lack of apps on Windows Phone 7 has been called out in a Business Insider article as something Nokia (NOK) CEO Stephen Elop should pay more attention to, after Elop’s promise to deliver a superior OS seemingly disregards the influence of mobile apps on consumers’ device preferences. Read more...