In an effort to keep bottom-line growth alive, Intel is trying (again) to move into the mobile phone market. Speaking from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Pentium parent's CEO, Paul Otellini, told Bloomberg that Intel is focused on "where we think phones are going, not where they are today."

Last year, Otellini put to rest his predecessor's $5 billion, six-year effort to produce mobile-phone chips designed to run the communications features of cellular phones. Now, the Intel CEO is taking a different approach to the new marketplace, designing chips for phones that can surf the web and master mobile video and music. The goal for the new chip is to provide increased processing power while exerting less electricity.

In the first half of 2008, Intel will be unveiling its package of mobile chips. A successful shift toward this technology could be a boon for the company, as mobile handsets currently outsell personal computers by a 4-to-1 margin.

It's hard for me to go along with the media crowd on this one, despite all the indications and market swings that have happened at Intel recently. Yes, competitor AMD has apparently eaten Intel's lunch with consumer and professional CPUs for personal computers. AMD's Athlon and Turion (and others) have seen the spotlight over the last few years more than most of Intel's processors, and more PC and server manufacturers have turned to the AMD camp for products that the market at large sees are more advanced and more inexpensive that inferior Intel offerings. For pete's sake, even lifetime Intel customer Dell -- the world's largest PC manufacturer -- even recently said it would start to offer AMD chips in a server line.

Does this mean Intel has lost its edge? I don't think it ever has really, in terms of marketshare. Perhaps in terms of perceived popularity, yes it has lost its edge -- and it may regain that edge soon. Intel's last public glory was the Centrino platform of integrated CPU and wireless networking that spurred WiFi into many millions of laptop computers worldwide. I credit Intel for making wireless networking a standard feature on almost every laptop computer sold these days.

Yes, Intel has missed a multitude of opportunities in the last three years or so -- and the competition has been poised to capitalize on Intel's mistakes. AND certainly has. But has Intel really every lost its edge? It competes in more markets than just CPU chips -- a fact often overlooked. This summer's new Intel chips will most likely help it regain the shining luster it's had before. But, watch out for AMD, Intel. They seem to have your number, regardless of the lower marketshare it has.