According to Bloomberg sources, Intel may be attempting to secure a spot for their mobile chips by first infiltrating the Chinese phone market. Their sources claim that Intel has submitted designs of a handset based on a version of Intel’s Atom microprocessor. The phone will be manufactured by ZTE Corp and may go on sale in China.
Intel has been trying to break into the smartphone industry without much success, lagging far behind rivals, and still too dependent than they’d prefer on the personal computer market. Currently there are no phones on sale that use Intel processors. The surprise move of Nokia jumping ship from Intel to Microsoft back in February also didn’t help in the company’s efforts to make headway into smartphones.
When asked about working with ZTE, a spokeswoman for Intel Claudine Mangano declined to comment. “In terms of the overall market, we recognize that we have some work to do, but we’re patient and we’re committed to the business,” Mangano said. “We have the right elements to be successful. We are working on a number of engagements, but are not ready to talk about them.”