Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

That Intel Phone Coming This Week: It’s for India’s Lava

Intel said on Tuesday’s earnings call that the first smartphone running its chips will launch this week, but it didn’t identify the customer by name.

However, some deductive reasoning suggests that it will be Lava, a little-known Indian company that Intel announced in February as one of its early customers.

Lenovo and France Telecom’s Orange also plan devices this quarter, but both of those companies have announced dates for later in the quarter. Lenovo’s first Intel phone is coming in May, while Orange’s is expected in June.

Intel is hoping to make a dent in a market that until now has been dominated by the likes of Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia.

“We have ambitions to not be a minor player here,” CEO Paul Otellini said back in February.

Part of Intel’s strategy has been to create a near-complete reference design that aspiring players — like Lava — can use to quickly get into the smartphone game.

Intel also announced a longer-term partnership with Motorola Mobility, though it has yet to convince most big-name phone makers to adopt its chips.

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