Intel expands smartphone product portfolio

BARCELONA, Spain — Intel Corp. president and CEO Paul Otellini detailed at the recent GSMA Mobile World Congress here a number of announcements and plans aimed at expanding the company’s smartphone product portfolio and customer ecosystem, including strategic new engagements with Orange, Lava International Ltd., ZTE, and Visa.

“We are very pleased to add new, important customers and capabilities to our phone offerings today. We remain focused on delivering exciting new features and outstanding performance to smartphone customers around the world,” said Otellini.

Otellini also highlighted the company’s plans to expand its smartphone SoC and communications product roadmaps for the performance and value smartphone market segments.

Yves Maitre, Orange senior vice president for mobile multimedia and devices, joined Otellini to discuss a new Orange smartphone based on the Intel Atom processor Z2460 reference design. Housed in a sleek body, the design enables rich entertainment experiences and Orange services, including Orange TV, Daily Motion, Deezer, Orange Wednesdays and Orange Gestures. The Orange smartphone will be available in the United Kingdom and France later this summer.

Intel also announced plans to enter the high-growth market for smartphones in India through an alliance with Lava International Ltd., one of the fastest-growing Indian mobile handset companies.

Vishal Sehgal, Lava co-founder and board director, announced the launch of XOLO Smartphone by Lava. The XOLO X900 is based on Intel’s smartphone reference design and will be the first Intel technology-based smartphone in the Indian market. 

Similar to its previously announced partnership with Motorola Mobility, Intel also announced a multi-year mobile device collaboration across smartphones and tablets with global handset maker ZTE.

Building on its ecosystem engagements, Intel announced plans for three new smartphone SoC products that expand the company’s portfolio from the performance-to-value market segments.

Extending the leading performance and energy efficiency of the Intel Atom processor Z2460, formerly codenamed “Medfield,” Intel announced that the platform will now support speeds up to 2GHz.

Intel also announced the Atom Z2580 processor that doubles the performance of the Atom processor Z2460, and features an advanced multimode LTE/3G/2G solution. Intel will sample the Z2580 in the second half of the year with customer products scheduled in the first half of 2013.

Addressing the growing handset opportunity in emerging markets where consumers look for more value at lower prices, Intel disclosed plans for the Intel Atom processor Z2000.

The Z2000 is aimed squarely at the value smartphone market segment, which industry sources predict could reach up to 500 million units by 2015.

The platform includes a 1.0 GHz Atom CPU offering great graphics and video performance, and the ability to access the Web and play Google Android games.

It also supports the Intel XMM 6265 3G HSPA+ modem with dual-SIM 2G/3G, offering flexibility on data/voice calling plans to save on costs. Intel will sample the Z2000 in mid-2012 with customer products scheduled by early 2013.

In 2011, Intel shipped in more than 400 million cellular platforms. Building on this market segment position, Intel announced the XMM 7160, an advanced multimode LTE/3G/2G platform with support for 100Mbps downlink and 50Mbps uplink, and support for HSPA+ 42Mbps. It will sample the product in the second quarter with customer designs scheduled to launch by the end of 2012.

Intel also revealed that it is sampling the XMM 6360 platform, a new slim modem 3G HSPA+ solution supporting 42Mbps downlink and 11.5Mbps uplink for small form factors.