Intel: Their Week in the Spotlight
Published on 08-13-2015 01:00 PM
Next week is the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) here in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. I'll be there at least some of the time. But it is also the time that people who haven't a clue about semiconductors and the market that it serves get to lap up press releases and try and sound intelligent.
For example:
Intel is about to drive a new wave of Moore’s Law, as personal computing converges with mobile technology due to the development of smaller processors, increased power efficiency, non-volatile memory, flexible/agnostic software, wireless peripherals and cloud access.
Intel is leapfrogging its competition with the launch of Mobile Personal Computing Convergence this fall, which has the potential to create huge sales increases and expanded profit margins for the company. Intel is about to revolutionize smartphones by bringing lower-power use to the high-end computing processors used in smartphones.
At the Intel Developer Forum 2015, which runs between August 18-20 through the upcoming Intel Investor Day, the company will introduce high powered processors, memory and communications capability packaged as a System on a Chip (SOC). Intel’s miniaturizing high power processors will power “supersmart-phones” within a year.
The Intel Apple Deal is a Nothingburger!
Published on 08-14-2015 10:00 PM
The latest Intel rumor that the pro Intel media are flogging is that Intel modems will be in some of the new iPhones. The deal is estimated at around $1B. An “estimated” value of a “rumor” deal is quite funny in itself but let’s take a deeper look at what we are gossiping about here.
Intel got into the 3G/LTE business after acquiring the Infineon wireless division back in 2011. In 2013 Intel also acquired Fujitsu Wireless. “Rumor” has it that the combined cash outlay for these two deals is an “estimated” $2B. I also heard a rumor that Intel bought smaller companies for its wireless effort including $25M for an LTE company in Dresden which was recently closed down. These acquisitions included hundreds of talented engineers (estimate) some of which no longer work at Intel (rumor).
The Apple deal was leaked by analyst Gus Richard with Northland Capital Markets and repeated by dozens of “media” outlets:
Intel’s Modem Wins at Apple: Apple has been evaluating Intel’s model for a while. We now believe that Intel will capture roughly 50% of Apple’s modem business in the upcoming iPhones due to launch September 9th. Further, assuming a 50% share of modem business in the new iPhones we estimate that this win could represent $750M to $1.25B in revenue for Intel in CY16. This is a marque win for Intel and would go a long way to reducing the mobile business losses.
I’m all for this by the way. Competition is the foundation of the mighty fabless semiconductor ecosystem, so good for Intel, if it is true. I do have some observations worth considering:
