Tech Giants Gun for Motorola's Mobile Market

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http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/18862.html

Tech Giants Gun for Motorola's Mobile Market

By Lou Hirsh
Wireless NewsFactor
August 2, 2002

In terms of how the chip battle will play out, Meta Group vice president Jack Gold said he would "never sell Intel short" in any market it attempts to pursue.

As wireless devices grow in popularity, many companies are seeking to invade the turf long dominated by communications chip giant Motorola (NYSE: MOT) . But company officials say the firm is well poised to defend its position against new onslaughts by Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and other players from the applications processor world.

Illinois-based Motorola's main weapon in the coming battle is a platform, first introduced last fall, that incorporates the chipsets and software needed by handset makers that want to add complex processing and communications features to their products.

Motorola platform marketing director Ed Valdez told Wireless NewsFactor that the technology, which incorporates the company's DragonBall multimedia processor, is designed to be a "one stop" technology for handset makers seeking to incorporate next-generation features.

Convergence Factors

Valdez said the first version of the convergence platform, called i.250, already has been adopted by handset makers like Siemens (NYSE: SI) , Sewon and Acer, and should show up in consumer products over the next few months.

One key advantage of the platform, according to Valdez, is its potential cost savings for manufacturers. It allows GPRS (general packet radio service) phone makers to construct handsets with just 125 parts, a 50 percent reduction from the current 250 parts.

"That's going to mean significant savings in terms of manufacturing the products and getting them to market," Valdez said.

He added that the platform is designed to respond to a quickly shifting landscape, as wireless phones take on the functions of handheld computers and vice versa. "Our competitors in some respects are still looking to fill in some of the white spaces," Valdez noted.

Clashes Ahead

Motorola and Intel traditionally have occupied entirely separate chip technology spheres.

Intel has dominated the field of PC applications processors , where it competes with rivals like AMD. Motorola has long been the top player in communications chips, including radio frequency and baseband devices, and has done battle with such firms as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Philips (NYSE: PHG) .

"It's like comparing the New York Giants football team to the San Francisco Giants baseball team," Gartner (NYSE: IT) chief analyst Stan Bruederle told Wireless NewsFactor. "It's not the same playing field."

For the most part, Bruederle said, handheld product makers have been content to deal with several vendors for the various technology sockets found on a single device. On wireless PDAs , for example, the communications chips, memory and applications processors are typically supplied by different companies.

But as convergence sets in, several firms are competing to get a piece of the action and avoid being squeezed out.

Intel, AMD Reacting

Intel has already boosted its presence in the area of flash memory for PDAs, and in recent months the company also has beefed up its platform offerings for wireless developers.

In addition, the tech giant has enhanced the chips based on its XScale architecture in an effort to save power and offer multimedia features for wireless devices, and it has expanded its baseband chip offerings.

Rival AMD has not stood still, either. The company recently announced plans to develop a four-bit flash memory chip for storing data on wireless devices.

That news followed AMD's April introduction of its Alchemy Au1100 processor for non-PC mobile Internet appliances, such as Web pads, telematics and PDAs.

AMD and Intel officials could not be reached after repeated requests for comment.

Competing at High End

In terms of how the chip battle will play out, Meta Group (Nasdaq: METG) vice president Jack Gold said he would "never sell Intel short" in any market it attempts to pursue. As devices become increasingly complex, he said, Intel is approaching wireless chips as a natural extension of its computing space.

"I don't expect them to try to compete with Motorola or TI at the low end of the space, but certainly they will be a player at the high end," Gold told Wireless NewsFactor.

He added that AMD will be less of a force in this arena, since it has its hands full trying to implement a mobile processing strategy that achieves significant market share against Intel.

"It would be a distraction for them to go after the low end of this space to compete in handhelds and phones," Gold said.


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