back to article Medic! Intel can't stanch bleeding from mobile chip biz

Intel closed the book on a smashing first full year under CEO Brian Krzanich on Wednesday, reporting record revenues and earnings that beat analysts' estimates. But not every aspect of its business looked equally healthy, with mobile as the obvious trouble spot. Chipzilla pulled in $55.9bn in revenues during its fiscal 2014, a …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To put things into perspective

    If Intel hadn't wasted money tilting at windmills in the mobile market, their profit would have been almost 36% higher. Their stock price would be a lot higher too.

    Even if Intel is someday able to make people want to buy Atom without essentially giving them away for free (which they're doing today with their "contra revenue") the margins in that market are much thinner than they are in the PC market. It dilutes their overall results, and will never be a huge profit center like the PC market.

    It is kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time seeing Microsoft and Intel constantly struggle trying to expand beyond their PC market. Microsoft loses billions on boondoggles like MSN, Bing and XBox, Intel loses billions on Itanium and mobile SoCs. The sad fact is both are almost completely dependent on the PC market - both making over 100% of their profit in that market segment. If there's ever a true disruption that hurts that market, both are going to be in serious trouble.

    1. xperroni
      Holmes

      Re: To put things into perspective

      It is kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time seeing Microsoft and Intel constantly struggle trying to expand beyond their PC market. Microsoft loses billions on boondoggles like MSN, Bing and XBox, Intel loses billions on Itanium and mobile SoCs. The sad fact is both are almost completely dependent on the PC market - both making over 100% of their profit in that market segment. If there's ever a true disruption that hurts that market, both are going to be in serious trouble.

      Though you do see why they do that, right? You said it yourself: if the PC market were ever to go away, Intel and Microsoft would be pretty much done for. Unless they'd rather do like the cancer tobacco industry – simply accept their time will run out eventually and rake in as much as possible before the inevitable curtain fall – they must find a way into other / newer markets.

  2. Mikel

    If at first your mobile platform doesn't succeed, put Windows on the next iteration again. And again. And again, for 20 years.

    1. dogged
      Facepalm

      except Windows Phone only runs on Qualcomm chipsets.

      Do you ever actually know anything about the things you post?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Android

    Asus are producing Atom-powered phones, and I wonder what it takes to get them to do it. It is quite hard why to see why someone would go to the bother of putting Android on Atom without a healthy financial inducement. Intel is the AMD of the mobile business, and I suspect this is very galling for them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Android

      Maybe Asus are keeping their options open? If they want to stay first-rate they need first-rate chipmakers, and Intel's one of the few. And, there's the risk (and pain-in-the-ass factor) of proprietary GPUs on all ARM chips... Intel is kicking ass on that front. Making devs and DIYers happy. :)

    2. Mikel

      Re: Android

      The NFL is using Wintel tablets and we know precisely what it takes to get them to do it. Four hundred million dollars.

      http://www.maximumpc.com/nfL_announcers_slip_400_million_surface_deal_calls_microsofts_tablets_ipads_2014

  4. LemmingO

    moribund?

    A long long time ago, in a not-so-distant memory of things, one Intel veep said that their Mobile offering would only become truly competitive when they reached 14nm - that's where the power envelope of the x86 architecture would become manageable enough for mobiles. Until then, the company was well aware it had to bite the bullet as it wouldn't be able to ignore a market that big.

    I'd hardly call the mobile chip biz at Intel "moribund".

    The market is currently flooded with cheap quad-core Z3735/Z3745 Atom tablets, capable of running both Windows and Android (something people tend to forget - ARM can't manage that, because it's up to Microsoft to fully support Windows. Now, mobile phones, that's a whole different story. There are only a handful of Atom-based smartphones around but since devices still sell "by the spec", quad-core/octa-core 2GHz+ ARM devices are still the main draw.

    If you're talking financials, maybe you should try interviewing stockholders at Intel and ask them what their expectations are instead of rehashing what world+dog has already published ... or at least get comment from stock analysts that might give the article something unique.

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