Apple, Samsung Hinder Intel’s Smartphone Potential

Smartphones are becoming a bigger part of Intel's business, but Apple and Samsung, which together control about 50 percent of the global market, could cut into the chip maker's potential in the space. Addressing questions after a Q1 earnings call, where Intel reported a 13 percent drop in profits due to a flat market and increased R&D costs, CEO Paul Otellini said that providing the innards for Samsung and Apple, both of which currently produce their own silicon, would be a huge boon for Intel, but not entirely necessary for the company to succeed. "Even if you take out half of the market, which I would be loath to do, but even if you take it out, it's still a very large number," Otellini said, according to a transcript provided by Seeking Alpha. Otellini also stressed that Intel continues to "have dialogue" with both Apple and Samsung in terms of the company's product line. "And Samsung doesn't universally use its chips in its phones," he said. "They use other vendors, and that's certainly an account we would love to win for phones." Otellini said he couldn't speak for Apple, adding that "we know where they are and they know where we are." At Mobile World Congress, Intel demonstrated the first Atom-based Android phone, the Xolo X900 from Indian OEM Lava Mobiles. Lava has said that device will hit shelves tomorrow. The Xolo X900 is powered by Intel's Atom Z2460 processor, which is a single-core 1.6GHz Saltwell CPU. Shares of Intel were down 2 percent at $27.78 in early trading.