Intel grabs tiny slice of mobile chip market

Intel has nabbed 0.2% of the smartphone chip market this year, after handsets running its Medfield processors finally arrived on the market.

Intel has long dominated the PC market, but has failed to make much of a dent with mobile devices – which have seen sales take off while desktops and laptops stagnate.

The chip giant announced its first hardware wins at CES this year alongside a wider deal with Google-owned Motorola, with the Orange San Diego arriving in the UK this summer.

In its first report since Intel’s smartphone arrival, Strategy Analytics highlighted how far Intel still has to go to win market share. While Intel has 0.2% of the market for the first half of the year, Qualcomm has 48% – up from 44% in the first quarter.

“The company’s high-end LTE Snapdragon processor MSM8960 gained strong traction and featured in multiple LTE flagships from global tier-one smartphone manufacturers,” said analyst Sravan Kundojjala, referencing the ARM-designed chip used in flagship phones including versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X and Nokia’s Lumia 820 and 920.

“Strategy Analytics notes that Qualcomm’s early LTE modem leadership has helped the company to stay ahead of the competition,” Kundojjala added. Intel’s Medfield doesn’t yet support LTE – which is only set to arrive in the UK this month.

Samsung, MediaTek, Broadcom and Texas Instruments rounded out the top five, with the analyst firm saying it had seen the “most intense competition yet” in the market. MediaTek, for example, only entered the top five in the first quarter, and has now moved into second place, bolstered by low-cost smartphones in China.