Intel to push mobility in fractured PC, tablet market

IDG News Service - Intel will make a major mobile push at the Intel Developer Forum next week as the company tries to remain relevant in a market where tablets and smartphones are becoming an alternative to PCs for everyday computing.

Intel is at a critical juncture with a dominant position in the PC market, but with a very small presence in the fast-growing tablet and smartphone markets. Intel will highlight new ultrabooks and new forms of interaction -- touch, voice and gesture -- coming to future designs, and will also talk about its tablet strategy as the company looks to raise the competition against ARM, which rules the tablet market and has ambitions in the PC market.

Intel's business has been hurting with the recent slump in PC sales, which has partly been affected by growing sales of tablets and smartphones. Intel on Friday cut its third-quarter revenue forecast, saying sales were hurt because of a slow global economy. Weak ultrabook and PC sales and a cautious outlook by PC makers relying on Intel chips have hurt the chip maker, said Vijay Rakesh, an analyst at Sterne Agee, in a research note on Friday.

Despite weak sales, Intel is putting more muscle and financial resources behind ultrabooks, a new category of thin and light laptops with flexible designs including touchscreens that can be detached and used as tablets. By finding middle ground between tablets and laptops, Intel is looking to counter ARM's threat while also reinvigorating the PC market.

The opening speech as IDF is usually given by Intel CEO Paul Otellini, but with mobility in focus, the stage this year will be taken by Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Architecture Group. In addition to ultrabooks, Perlmutter will provide details on the company's next-generation Core processor for ultrabooks code-named Haswell, which is more power efficient and will help increase performance and battery life of the next wave of ultrabooks due out next year. Intel is decreasing the power of Haswell chips to as low as 10 watts, which is an improvement from the current crop of 17-watt ultrabook chips code-named Ivy Bridge.

But for now, Intel said there are 40 touch-enabled Ivy Bridge ultrabooks in the design pipeline, and models from companies like Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba will be on display at the show.

Intel is established in the PC platform, but is now making a big push into the smartphone and tablet markets, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

"What we may end up seeing is how Intel manages the existing established platform, while participating in new markets as well," McCarron said.