Intel Corp (INTC)

[Ideal_Inv]

Intel Corp. Likely to Adopt ARM Architecture for Future Smartphone Processors

http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/22/intel-corp-likely-to-adopt-arm-for-future-smartpho.aspx

It was fairly obvious that Intel would never quit mobile and I posted to that effect several months back. The volume is just too big for them to ignore it. It doesn't matter whether they capture the whole value with their own SoCs or make the manufacturing cut by being a foundry. Intel just needs to be there.

Intel's decision to get an ARM license has to do with mobile SoCs but that is not the main reason. Intel had to do this with regard to microservers, IoT, FPGA, etc.

With ARM-microservers still in the news, it would make sense for Intel to have ARM technologies in their back pocket if the market turned out to be of sufficient size and x86 could not compete in that space. Intel could decimate any ARM-based server SoC vendor (including Qualcomm) and keep them from going up the food chain.

Further, IoT would require a massive number of low-power SoCs. Intel would be able to better compete only if they had ARM-based offerings.

Stepping back, Intel should never have sold the StrongARM business to Marvel. They should have kept that business going until they were absolutely sure that x86 would be able to gain the upper hand. The decision to sell StrongARM was an absolute disaster and IMO, set Intel back by 10 years!