Intel confirms mobile business intentions and unites 4 separate business groups (Mobile Communications, Netbook and Tablet, Mobile Wireless and Ultra Mobility) into one unit under the Mobile and Communications Group (MCG) name.
The announcement comes via internal company memo, as reported (and later confirmed) by Fortune.
Heading the MCG is Mike Bell, who worked at Apple (on the iPhone) and Palm before joining Intel in 2010.
The aim of the consolidation is, of course, to push mobile efforts-- the company wants Intel-powered smartphones on the market by H1 2012, and has an alliance with Google (announced las September) to get Android on Intel chips. Sometime.
This is hardly the first time Intel had "serious" mobile plans. Back in 2009, Intel's Ultra Mobility group started a collaboration with Nokia to "shape the next era of mobile computing innovation." Amongst other things, the Intel-Nokia alliance involved the open source stillborn mobile OS, MeeGo.
Two years later, we all know with whom Nokia truly started working.
Will Intel manage to beat the current mobile chip champion ARM this time? It does have the resources and manufacturing capability-- Intel remains the biggest chip maker in the business. But some might say the company is already too late to invest in new low-power chips customers want to put in smartphones and tablets. We'll have to wait to see if the MCG will actually bear fruit.
