Intel has chosen an interesting path with their line of low-powered Atom chips: instead of making them beefier so that netbooks can be faster, they’re going to work on making them even smaller so that they might work in smartphones. Intel announced that it will be releasing an offshoot of Atom called Moorestown in 2010, which it will be aiming at the mobile devices that are becoming ever more and more ubiquitous. This news comes to us just days after investment guru Jim Cramer predicted high growth in the smartphone market. Growth brings with it some level of volatility in the market, between the way it drives innovation in both product development and business plans, the latter of which is something that Intel does better than almost anyone.
Intel has what it takes to compete with phone CPU manufacturer ARM and then some. The reasoning behind this is two-fold. Number one is that Intel has always been good at running advertising campaigns, and not just in the form of what you see on TV. Sure, the broadcasts ads are successful, to the point that many people have come to identify a series of four notes as the Intel jingle. But more telling is the placement of computers running Intel processors, both in venues such as libraries and in stores that sell computers; there are just more Intel machines on shelves than there are anything else.
While many of us have mixed feelings about Intel’s product placement and advertising, it is undeniable that Intel simply has more money than ARM to throw into making chips. Intel is working with around $37 billion, which makes ARM’s $300 million look like peanuts. Intel is admittedly not as specialized as ARM and thus has more technologies in which to invest, but in announcing they’re entrance into the smartphone chip market, Intel is also saying that it is willing to drop the dough it needs to give ARM a run for its money.
