The market for PC and server chips may be slowing a bit as it becomes more mature. So, big chip companies like Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) need to figure out where to get their next spurt of growth. Smartphones and other "intelligent" wireless devices sales are rising fast, so why not take a piece of that market. One reason is probably competition, but that rarely keeps companies from entering a market that they think is promising.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "Intel Corp has been heavily promoting a new breed of pocket-size portable devices as a future market for its chips. Its competitors now hope to reap the benefits." Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) already dominate the mobile market and may not want to let Intel in. Other large chips companies like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and AMD (NYSE: AMD) would like a piece of the pie as well.
The gamble by Intel is that there will be huge demand for devices that are smaller than a PC but larger than a smartphone. They will eventually run on WiMax, WiFi and standard cellular broadband networks. The industry calls these "mobile Internet devices."
The success of the new market may swing on one large miscalculation. Consumers may not want a one-pound mini-computer with a tiny keyboard and modest-sized screen. Smartphones like the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry are already advanced "computers" and they are being improved every year.
New chips for new devices -- but what if no one wants them?
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-02-2008 @ 6:50PM
garrett said...
Chip companies go tiny is your statement and your question is what if no one wants these devices ?
Let's use a little common sense. If you had the ability to carry only one device that would supplant your phone, wallet, car keys, newspaper, home PC, that would also control every electrical device in and outside your home, which could further deliver you any information, whether video, voice or content dat in real-time...........WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED ?
If your answer is YES..........then I have good news for you. Within 10 years that advanced convergent electrical device will be readily available and it will allow the user to seamlessly transmit/receive any voice, video or content data ubiquitously.
All the technology exists and is being roadmapped to occur.
Now AMD & Intel would prefer it to run on their x86 C(complex)ISC microprocessors and TI & Nvidia want it to run on ARM Holdings R(reduced)ISC microprocessors.
Personally I'm betting on RISC chips.
Irregardless, the customer does not care how it works, they just want it to work.
The customer will have what they want in 10 years.
Merry Xmas.