Intel will stop adding to tablets. Are we facing price increases
Intel will stop adding to tablets. Are we facing price increases?
A few months ago, we informed you about an extremely cheap tablet, which was to be priced at just $99. Indeed, the equipment debuted on the market, and in our country there were even several auctions where you could buy the device. Unfortunately, perhaps such occasions will become a thing of the past, all thanks to Intel’s plans.
Intel is a tycoon in the market of processors designed for PCs and laptops. For many years, the position of the American giant has been strengthening, but this does not apply to the broader mobile industry. The company has been trying for some time to improve its presence in the mobile market.
At this point, it’s pretty much the only sensible way forward, and the heads of the world’s largest chipmaker are well aware of it.
Wasted opportunity
As early as 2007, the first rumors about Apple’s use of an Intel-made SoC chip surfaced. Intel Silverthorne, as the chip was called at the time, was expected to provide computing power for the first-generation iPad. However, it turned out that the Cupertino corporation has its own chip, which it decided to use.
In this way, Intel was deprived of a huge opportunity to enter the tablet market.
Competition is not sleeping
Several years have passed, during which the situation has not changed significantly. Of course, Intel has been working on more chips. However, at the same time, companies such as Qualcomm (maker of Snapdragon chips), Samsung (maker of Esynos), Nvidia (with its mobile Tegra), and, in recent years, smaller manufacturers (Mediatek or Marvell processors), have managed to divide this sector of the economy between themselves.
In 2012, Intel unveiled a processor family called Bay Trail, which was to become the basis for many devices (mainly tablets) running Android and Windows 8. The $99 tablet, mentioned at the beginning of the text, is one of many examples of the use of Intel’s new processors.
Windows dominated
While Android-equipped devices can’t speak of a flood of devices equipped with the American giant’s new chip, in the case of tablets running Windows 8, Intel’s new platform has become dominant. What methods were used to achieve this?
Subsidy – an expensive way to fight competition
Primarily through a system of subsidies and rebates for tablet manufacturers. Intel offered help in marketing efforts as well as reimbursements for costs incurred in redesigning motherboards, adapted to work with chips from other suppliers. However, the most important factor for which companies were able to reach for Bay Trail chips was the $51 subsidy for each tablet. That’s a pretty significant amount. However, in recent days there have been claims that from next year Intel will stop adding to the business.
Why?
The end of a good?
Of course, the primary reason for such a decision, is the desire for profit. According to analysts, processor sales at a discount of $51 are on the verge of profitability. Moreover, Intel’s mobile chip division generated as much as 7 billion.
The $ loss in the last two years (in 2013 and most likely in 2022).
