In the wave of mobile internet, ARM has made a comeback and become the king, while Intel, the giant in the computer chip era, reacted slowly and became marginalized. Recently, Intel President James (Renee-James) told American media that the temporary failure in mobile chips is not due to a lack of technology, but rather insufficient emphasis.
On Friday, during an interview with Bloomberg, James said: "There is a difference between being unable to do something and not doing it." This implies that Intel did not give enough strategic priority to mobile chips, not because it lacked the necessary technology.
In May, Kazanich became the CEO of Intel, and James, 49, was promoted to president, making her the "second-in-command" at Intel. Under the new management, Intel has undergone some changes. Instead of following past product release roadmaps step by step, they now release products as they mature.
Nowadays, consumers checking emails, browsing the web, and engaging in online entertainment have shifted from traditional desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets. However, during this transition, Intel exhibited the disadvantage of a slow-moving giant, becoming a laggard in the mobile chip market and struggling to catch up with British ARM.
Patrick-Wang, an analyst at Evercore, stated that Intel's progress in mobile chips has been slow, failing to show investors concrete results, which has disappointed the public.
The comprehensive contraction of computer chips and the arduous challenge of mobile chips were the main reasons for the early retirement of Intel's former CEO Paul Otellini and the early handover of decision-making power.
The aforementioned analyst gave Intel stock a "underperform" rating, stating that Intel talks more than it acts in the mobile chip sector, causing investors to lose hope time and again.
In the second quarter of this year, Intel still held 92% of the global computer chip market share, but according to data from tech market research company IDC, Intel only captured 3.2% of the tablet chip market, almost negligible. Patrick-Wang said that surpassing Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung Electronics in mobile chip design capability poses a tremendous challenge for Intel.
Traditionally, Intel upgrades its chips for computers and servers according to predetermined schedules. The launch of the Quark chip in September (targeted at smartwatches and other wearable devices) indicates that Intel is moving away from its old model.
IDC pointed out that stimulated by the growth in smartphone consumption, this year's phone shipments will increase by 7.3%, and tablet sales will surge by 59%. This will also drive the mobile device chip market. In contrast, IDC predicted in August that the global computer market will decline by 9.7% this year. The industry generally believes that computers have entered a historical decline phase, transforming into an increasingly smaller sunset market. If companies like Intel and Microsoft, which dominated the computer era, do not transform in time, they risk becoming dinosaurs in the tech industry.