Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said their relationships with Intel Corp would remain unaffected amid speculation about the computer chip giant’s planned exit from the mobile chip market.
Intel is canceling its Atom chips — provisionally titled Broxton and SoFIA — for smartphones and tablets, so that the company can focus on cloud and smart connected computing devices, it said.
“We are committed to long-term leadership and improved profitability of our mobile business and the decision to cancel Broxton for phones and tablets and SoFIA 3Gx/LTE/LTE2 enables us to move resources to products that deliver higher returns and advance our strategy,” Intel said in a statement, quoted by the AnandTech Web site on Friday last week.
Photo: Reuters
Part of Asustek’s ZenFone smartphone series uses Intel mobile chips and Acer uses Intel mobile chips for its tablets, but both Asustek and Acer declined to comment on Intel’s decision to scale back its mobile system-on-chip (SoC) business.
An Asustek official who declined to be named said Intel’s move is expected to only have a limited impact on Asustek’s smartphone segment, as the company has been reducing its use of Intel chips since the second half of last year.
Asustek’s smartphone business saw rapid growth in 2014 and last year, partly due to Intel’s subsidized sales of SoCs to Asustek ,which enabled the Taiwanese company to offer low retail prices for its smartphones while maintaining a healthy level of profitability, people familiar with the matter said.
Since Intel withdrew its subsidy plan in the first half of last year, Asustek has gradually lowered its use of Intel chips in its smartphones and shifted focus to Qualcomm Inc and MediaTek Inc’s (聯發科) SoCs, the people said.
By the end of last year, Qualcomm chips were used in between 50 percent and 60 percent of Asustek’s smartphone models, while Intel chips were used in less than 20 percent, the Asustek official said.
The official said Asustek’s upcoming flagship smartphone ZenFone 3 series would mainly use Qualcomm chips, and the percentage of Intel chips used in the firm’s handsets would continue to fall.
The relationship between Asustek and Intel would not be affected by the firm’s reduced use of Intel chips in its smartphones, the official said.
“Asustek and Intel are long-time partners. We look forward to cooperating in the Internet-of-Things [IoT] field or even in smart cars in the near future,” the official said.
Acer said the company and Intel have been collaborating on a wide range of products for a long time, and its existing projects with Intel would remain unchanged.
However, Acer said it would watch closely to see whether Intel’s planned decision would affect the Taiwanese firm’s product strategy, adding that products would be adjusted if necessary.
soft landing: The US’ rate-setting FOMC finds itself in a difficult situation as it seeks to address inflation through interest rate hikes while avoiding a recession The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday after a summer of mixed economic data, while leaving the door open to another hike if needed. The Fed has raised interest rates 11 times over the past 18 months, lifting its key lending rate to a level not seen for 22 years as it tackles inflation still stubbornly above its long-term target of 2 percent. Analysts and traders broadly expect the US central bank to hold rates steady on Wednesday in order to give policymakers more time to assess the health of the world’s largest economy. “We think
AI TREND: TSMC has been rapidly expanding capacity to meet a spike in demand for advanced packaging services, but still expects supplies to be tight for 18 months Arizona is in talks with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) about advanced chip packaging, state Governor Katie Hobbs said yesterday, which is crucial for the manufacturing of artificial intelligence (AI) chips. TSMC, which is building a US$40 billion chip factory in the US state, has not announced plans to build facilities for advanced chip packaging in the US. Advanced packaging processes stitch multiple chips together into a single device, lowering the added cost of more powerful computing. “Part of our efforts at building the semiconductor ecosystem is focusing on advanced packaging, so we have several things in the works around that
NXP Semiconductors NV expects its first automotive-grade 5-nanometer chip built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to become available for automakers within one-and-a-half years at the earliest, following demand for better computing performance and energy efficiency for connected vehicles, a company executive said yesterday. That would mean a significant upgrade from the 16-nanometer technology NXP adopted in its existing series of microprocessors. NXP chief technology executive Lars Reger made the remarks during a media briefing yesterday in Taipei. The latest updates came after NXP unveiled its plan to source 5-nanometer capacity from TSMC in 2021. This is Reger’s first trip to
Tailwinds: Blockbuster earnings at Nvidia Corp have sparked hopes of a tech sector boom; Taiwanese chipmakers are hopeful benefits will come to them too The worst could be over for the New Taiwan dollar as China’s economic recovery and a rebound in the chip industry will support the beleaguered currency, analysts said. The NT dollar is on course to weaken for a sixth month, the longest stretch since 2006, after foreign funds turned sour on its technology sector and risk sentiment deteriorated on slower growth in China. The tide seems to be turning now on nascent signs of stabilization in China’s economy — its biggest trading partner — following policy boosts. The yuan emerged as the best-performing Asian currency last week, followed by the Japanese yen