Rumours that Apple will buy the British chip designer Arm are treated with ridicule in Silicon Valley but, in London, they were enough to push its shares up by 30 per cent at one point on Thursday.
A note in the Lex column of the Financial Times on Friday ponders whether to be long or short on the stock after a 60 per cent rise so far this year. Read more
Even for people who keep more of an eye out on upstream chip companies rather than downstream device makers, the focus for this year’s Computex has been very much on tablet PCs. This is because of the general consensus that while Intel will find it difficult to break into the Arm-dominated mobile phone and smartphone markets, Arm, too, will struggle to break into Intel’s stronghold in personal computers.
This leaves the tablet as just ambiguous enough a category – is it an oversized mobile device? Or a keyboard-less netbook? – for the two to fight over. This is certainly happening – Intel unveiled Canoe Lake (pictured), a new ultrathin platform that can support both single and dual-core atom processors for tablets and netbooks – at its Computex keynote on Tuesday.
Tablets won’t eat netbooks’ lunch – Intel CEO
Tablet computers may be all the rage with the introduction of Apple’s iPad, but they will not have a big impact on the PC industry, according to Intel.
“Everybody says tablets are going to eat the notebooks’ and netbooks’ lunch,” Paul Otellini, chief executive, told the leading chipmaker’s investor meeting on Tuesday. “On the scale of the PC industry, they’re relatively insignificant.” Read more
Intel Atom frugal on power and phone partners
Intel has begun its big push into mobile phones and tablet devices by unveiling the details of an Atom processor platform that uses 50 times less power in idle mode than its current-generation chips.
Excessive power usage has been the chipmaker’s Achilles’ heel in trying to break into smartphones. It needed to reduce consumption to make Atom competitive with Arm-based chips in handheld devices, but the paucity of partner products announced to date suggests it still faces a long haul to make a dent in these new markets. Read more
Apple iPad – the hardware winners and losers
We may have got our handson the new Apple iPad , but analysts have yet to break one open and see what’s inside.
However, guesses can already be made as to the winner and losers among component makers. Read more
Intel rearms for Arm smartbook challenge
Just in time for the Consumer Electronics Show and the launch of an assault on its mobile strategy, Intel has announced an upgrade to its Atom microprocessor.
Atom has dominated the netbook category but it faces a challenge at CES from smaller, leaner-on-energy smartbooks featuring Arm-based processors. Read more
Smartphones enter the gigahertz age
An ARM race is beginning to take shape in smartphones, as the latest models demand faster processors to deal with an expanding range of computing and multimedia activities on devices.
Marvell announced today it would overtake Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor with a new family of Armada processors, based on ARM of the UK’s designs, capable of speeds up to 1.2Ghz.
That is twice the clock speed of the 600Mhz iPhone 3GS and the new Motorola Droid, reported to contain a 600Mhz Texas Instruments processor. Read more
Flash 10.1 leaves Apple out in the cold
There is still no agreement between Adobe and Apple over its Flash technology being allowed to boost the web browsing capabilities of the iPhone, but the same can’t be said for other devices from today.
Adobe is announcing the release of Flash 10.1 at its MAX worldwide developer conference in Los Angeles. It will bring better browsing and HD performance to smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other web-connected devices. Read more
Atom’s days numbered in cheap netbooks – Nvidia
Intel has so far dominated the high-growth netbook category with its Atom microprocessor, but that position is unsustainable, according to one of its chip rivals, Nvidia.
Chips based on ARM of the UK’s designs are set to drive a new wave of netbooks, smartbooks, Mids (mobile internet devices) – call them what you will – going on sale over the next six months, and Intel is in no position to compete, it claims. Read more
Microsoft shunning Arm-based netbooks
Look out for a new range of lower-cost netbooks this year using Arm-based processors rather than Intel’s Atom chip…but don’t expect to see any of them running Windows.
Linux, yes, Google’s Android operating system, quite possibly, but Microsoft is not yet supporting the new devices, which is something of an irritation to Warren East, Arm chief executive. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
