Intel cancels upcoming Atom-based smartphone SoC's; to concentrate on cloud, IoT and 5G technology

Intel is going through a rough phase. Some weeks back it had lowered its revenue forecast for the year and decided to cut down about 11.5 percent of its workforce in order to realign the business. In the latest news from the world’s largest chipmaker, there are plans to keep the smartphone SoC divisions on hold for now - effectively putting Intel out of the race among the smartphone chipmakers. In a report published by analyst Patrick Moorhead, Intel will most likely be cancelling its forthcoming Broxton and SoFIA products, thereby leaving the smartphones and tablets market for the time being. In its response to a report on AnandTech, Intel has stated that it is accelerating its transformation from a PC company to one that will be known for cloud computing as well as smart, connected devices. “We will intensify our investments to fuel the virtuous cycle of growth in the data center, IoT, memory and FPGA businesses, and to drive more profitable mobile and PC businesses. Intel delivers a broad range of computing and connectivity technologies that are foundational to this strategy and that position us well to lead the end-to-end transition to 5G,” said Intel in its statement. Confirming the analyst report, Intel spokesperson said,“I can confirm that the changes included canceling the Broxton platform as well as SoFIA 3GX, SoFIA LTE and SoFIA LTE2 commercial platforms to enable us to move resources to products that deliver higher returns and advance our strategy. These changes are effective immediately.” Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, in a blog post clearly stated the future growth areas for Intel. Among them cloud computing, Internet of Things and other connected products, memory and programmable solutions such as FPGAs and 5G technology were things that stood out. Intel hope to concentrate on products which will likely give the company higher returns and advance its strategy. Speaking to EETimes, chip analyst Moorhead said that there were many aspects to mobility. “Intel has 7000 series modems for LTE smartphones, tablets and PCs,” said Moorhead. This is the area the company is expected to drive more of its resources towards as the Atom SoC lineup for smartphones clearly hasn’t given Intel much in terms of returns.