Okay Geek Farm
Bye bye Intel: Nokia no longer needs you, its got Microsoft now
Daniel Carey
Analysts in the know were quick to judge who gained exponentially from the “alliance” forged between computational conglomerates, Nokia and Microsoft. In every partnership there’s always a loser, lose can’t be avoided. However, the loser in this agreement is neither Microsoft nor Nokia. No, instead, James Kendrick amongst other technology journalists, are claiming that the loser in this little love bubble is chipset giant Intel.
I ll preface this by stating I agree with James opinion on the matter, Intel has indeed been given the short straw James article can be found here.
Intel has continually tried to break into the mobile space for years now. But time and time again, smartphone manufacturers have passed on Intel s mobile chips in favour of Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia silicon. And for good reason too. Intel chips were considered to be too battery hogging. In a mobile device with limited battery technology available, every resource has to be taken into account. Moorestown handsets were all the rage at CES 2011, but low and behold, we still haven t seen any of them. Most Moorestown powered smartphones were either killed off entirely or taken back to the drawing board.
Knowing that OEMs wouldn t incorporate their chips in mobile phones, Intel set about creating a partnership by way of which Intel silicon would very much be used as the operating system in question was tailored for Intel s mobile chips. This partnership as most already know was with Nokia, their matrimonial creation being MeeGo; a joint cross platform venture between Linux OSes Moblin and Maemo.
Now that Nokia has partnered with Microsoft, MeeGo, despite Espoo claiming that it will still remain under development, is essentially dead in the water. They aren t going to be putting a real Linux based OS on their top tier smartphones anytime soon, that prestigious title is reserved for WP7.
As you may have guessed, the lack of MeeGo devices headed into the future is certainly a concern not necessarily for Nokia but it certainly conjures grave concern for other parent company Intel. Indeed, they tried getting into the mobile space through their chips (that failed), then through a manufacturer partnership (which has also failed). Essentially, Intel has spent millions of dollars on something it assumed would be a viable alternative, only to have it blow up in their collective faces.
With MeeGo out of the way (not that it really was in the way), the smartphone market is back down to three major competitors: Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7. Who will come out on top? Only time will tell. However, it certainly won t be Intel.
