New Intel chip for budget 3G, LTE devices soon

NEW DELHI: Intel Corp's SoFIA chipset could be available for makers of budget 3G mobile phones by the year end. The US-based chipmaker, which is eyeing the burgeoning mobility devices market, is readying to enable makers of entry-level 3G mobile phones with its SoFIA (Smart or Feature phone with Intel Architecture) chipset by the end of 2014, a top executive said. The LTE/4G-capable updated SoFIA version will debut in 2015.

The chipmaker had announced SoFIA, which is codename for 3G and LTE family of products, in December. "The new chipset will facilitate 3G and LTE for entry and value phones and tablets. SoFIA with 3G capabilities is expected to be available to customers by the end of 2014 with a follow-on LTE product in 2015," Sandeep Aurora, director of marketing & market development, Intel South Asia, told ET.

Intel, a late entrant into the mobility segment, competes with baseband chipset makers like Qualcomm, MediaTek, Marvell Technology and Spreadtrum Communications. In 2011, Intel had acquired Infineon's wireless solutions business to focus on mobility business.

In the first quarter of 2014, Qualcomm was leading the market with 66 per cent revenue share, followed by MediaTek (15%) and Spreadtrum Communications (5 per cent), according to a finding by Strategy Analytics.

"SoFIA builds on our proven communications platforms by adding powerful Intel Atom cores. The new chipset will be competitive from both feature set and cost perspective for this segment," Aurora said.

He, however, declined to name smartphone OEM partners for the company’s upcoming SoFIA chip-based devices. The new baseband chip is crucial to Intel's mobile transition strategy while the mobile chip market opportunity hovers around $5 billion in the current year.

Research firm IDC estimates that less than 1 per cent of smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2014 were based on Intel chipsets. It has projected that smartphone sales will touch 1.5 billion by 2017, after topping 1 billion units in 2013.