Intel wants its chips to power your smartphone, but it’s not having much luck. Though it’s the dominant maker of desktop and laptop processors, it’s a bit player in mobile
 phones. Rivals like Qualcomm, Nvidia, MediaTek, and others control 95 percent of the smartphone chip market, and Intel is struggling to make any meaningful progress to turn that around. Intel missed the smartphone boat. But, there’s another boat coming along soon, and Intel already has its tickets booked.
Intel missed the smartphone boat. But, there’s another boat coming along soon, and Intel already has its tickets booked.
Instead of smartphones, Intel looks to be targeting what could be the next big thing in tech – wearables, but rather than dedicate itself to the market, we could see it use wearable tech as a way to come at the mobile industry from another direction. Sort of like becoming best mates with the sibling of the person you’re trying to date. As it’s still early days for wearable tech, Intel has the opportunity to be in at the start, and not face such a gargantuan task of playing catchup like it has been forced to do in the mobile industry.
Wearables may look like Intel’s new favorite, but it’s still hard at work on mobile chips – concentrating not on America or the UK, but China, Asia, Africa and the Middle East – and Tizen, its somewhat stalled mobile OS project. Intel’s mobile strategy looks like a tech trifecta, and the bets are on for wearables to come in first, Atom processors to cross the line second, and at the moment, Tizen bringing up the rear in third. However, does Intel want wearables to lead the race until the last corner, before letting Atom through to win the race?