Almost every electronic device you use has a processor, and over time, they’ve become more and more complicated and complex. Inside all smartphones today is a system on a chip, or SoC. This contraption includes a plethora of processors, all optimized to handle certain tasks. Some handle video, some handle graphics, and others take of your wireless connections. There’s no perfect SoC, though. Some are good for performance, but have poor battery life, and some have stunning battery life, but so-s0 performance. When it comes right down to it, there is room for a lot of innovation in the SoC market.
If you were to look at all of the computers being used right now, nine out of ten would be powered by an Intel chip. Whether’s it’s the Core 2 Duos, i3, i5, or i7, Intel has an incredibly large presence in the personal computer market. Despite this success, however, the chip manufacturer has never been able to gain a hold on the mobile space. Samsung, Qualcomm, and a few others all hold a monopoly in the market. Android is optimized to run on those ARM-based chips, and for the most part, everyone is happy with these chips. But as we’ve seen over the last few years, the PC market is declining, so in order to keep growing, Intel needs to get a presence in the mobile space.
Intel has proven with its computer line that it make chips that are affordable, yet powerful that manufacturers love. Mobile processors are a different story, however. The company just can’t get it right. As we mentioned before, Android is specialized to run on ARM-based chips. This causes a problem for Intel, whose chips are Atom based. The company worked hand-in-hand with Google to develop a version of the operating system to run on its Atom chips, and while it eventually did work out, this caused long delays for Intel and only allowed for other chip makers to get further ahead.
Delays behind them, though, Intel has been able to work with some manufacturers on Android devices. We saw the Motorola RAZR i back in October, which was powered by Intel. Recently, we’ve seen the Intel-powered Lava XOLO, which is supposedly the “fastest smartphone ever,” as well as devices by ZTE and Lenovo.
But, where the heck are these devices? None of them are available in the United States, and some haven’t even been released. Why isn’t Intel working with the likes of Samsung or HTC? The latter of those is looking for a way to get back on top, and having a new, faster, power-efficient processor would certainly help its case. So, the question we pose to you is why hasn’t Intel made a bigger push in the mobile industry? Let us know in the comments!