Intel's Mobile Plans

There is a need for better processors targeting mobile devices. The engineering capabilities of today have made it possible to shrink the size of computers, taking them out of the appliance category into something as mobile as we are. Intel seems to recognize this trend and plans more products focusing on the mobile device market.

As announced by Intel, we are expecting more mobile devices to come out in 2011. The significance of this announcement is that it shows the industry's growing confidence in the mobile device market. It is predicted that the sales of mobile devices may surpass the sales of PCs by mid-2012. More and more people are going mobile. Even at home, some people find laptops and notebooks to be better choices vs. the desktop PC form factor. Many businesses are also investing more on mobile devices for their people.

Initially for 2011, Intel will focus on pushing the Moorestown platform to tablets, for which they already established partners. Intel's Medfield platform for the pocket-able mobile device category, however, would be pushed much later, sometime in the middle of 2011. With the coming of 4G and more advanced technologies for these smaller devices in 2011, Intel's delay might actually work to their favor. Although the competition can be tougher by that time. Intel's competition includes Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung and NVidia, which are pretty much established already in targeting the pocket-able mobile device category.

The popularity of mobile devices, including laptops/notebooks, netbooks, tablets/slates, smart phones and pocket-able multi-media players, have grown exponentially in the past 5 years. Besides reducing size, the engineering concern also includes prolonging battery life and on keeping the processor as cool as possible without compromising power. Based on Moore's Law, processor power can efficiently grow over time, which should also mean that the engineering and manufacturing processes that complement that growth should progress along with it. Collectively, Intel's progress in these areas is fairly remarkable and the timing of new product releases, based on their roadmap for next year, is not totally off. 2011 is the year of the mobile device... and that trend can continue on until Moore's Law becomes irrelevant.

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