Blog posts tagged with 'processor'

Microsoft’s upcoming Surface seems to have opened the floodgates as far as the tablet market is concerned. Google have entered the 7” tablet fray with the Nexus 7 (expected to ship later this month), and even Apple are rumoured to be working on a miniature version of the iPad (though many think this rumour baseless; Apple have always had very clear ideas on screen size). But perhaps the most surprising update is Samsung’s announcement that they’re prepping a tablet to run on Windows RT. For the uninitiated, Windows RT is a stripped-down version of Windows 8 designed to run on devices using ARM-based processors, such as tablets. The OS is sold only to developers, for the express purpose of preloading onto their devices; it is not intended as a standalone product for consumers. So why have Samsung opted to follow Microsoft’s lead, and release a new tablet to coincide with the release of Windows 8, when they’ve traditionally been associated with Android? Surely it would make more sense for the South Korean chaebol to utilize Google’s upcoming Android 4.1, Jelly Bean – or even wait for their much-anticipated Chrome OS, which is ultimately expected to homogenize the Google user experience and act as a bridge between laptops, tablets and Smartphones. There are a number of explanations. The most obvious is the notion that Samsung have already established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the Android market: they’re exceeded only by Apple as the premier provider of Smartphones (at least in terms of profits). It would make sense to try and diversify their market with a tablet utilizing a new OS, rather than stick to the same, tired iterations of Android. More ominously, this could signal a sea-shift in Samsung’s attitudes towards Google. Many have hypothesized that Samsung are attempting to distance themselves from Google, recently - though Google make a show of support for all adopters of their Android OS, Samsung has recently made the decision to utilize the Tizen operating system on their lower-spec Smartphones, despite the surfeit of older versions of Android (such as Froyo and Gingerbread) that are perfectly suited for this task. Samsung clearly want a little more autonomy in terms of software; or perhaps they’re just uncomfortable with putting all of their eggs in Google’s basket. Whatever the case may be – whether diversifying their market share, or radically shifting dimensions into a new one entirely – Samsung’s tablet is slated for release in October, which will coincide with the release of both Windows 8 and Microsoft’s Surface tablet. They’ll have a lot of work ahead of them; with both a new OS to tinker with, and a hardy market opponent in the form of the Surface, diversifying into the Windows tablet market will be an uphill struggle. But assuming they can overshadow their Microsoft competition, Samsung stand to gain substantial profits from this move!

The Smartphone world has been abuzz in recent months about the debut of the coveted quad-core processor. Long gone are the days when a dual-core was considered the crème de la crème of the market; increasingly, consumers are using their phones for a plethora of different purposes, whether it is to browse the internet or play games during their lunch break. As customers become more and more used to this lifestyle of convenience, they expect faster and faster performance from their mobile phones of choice – and, fortunately, our increasing ability to miniaturize components allows manufacturers to cater to these needs with stronger and smaller processors. One of the most storied processors of the moment is Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon S4 chipset, which is based on an ISA developed by ARM Architecture. It has gained a lot of fame recently for its adoption by the HTC One X, one of the top Smartphones on the market today. (Many of HTC’s earlier models utilize earlier versions of Snapdragon, including the HTC Evo 3D, the HTC Sensation XE, and the midrange One series model, the HTC One S.) But they’ve gained even greater relevance lately, due to the announcement that they plan to diversify into other forms of electronics. Though they still intend for the S4 to remain a primarily Smartphone-related chipset, they have introduced four new S4 chips designed with tablets and HDTV’s in mind; the most prominent two are named the Prime and the Pro. But we can’t help but wonder if this show of strength can be traced back to an easily-identifiable source – Intel’s recent proclamation that they are interested in bringing their proprietary x86 chips to Windows Phone OS devices. This announcement amounts to a declaration of war for major Smartphone chipset manufacturers like Qualcomm and Nvidia (whose Tegra Smartphone chipset is also based on Arm Architecture, and utilized by HTC One X’s current adversary, the top-end Samsung Galaxy SIII). So is this a tit-for-tat decision? Is Qualcomm diversifying into Intel’s traditional territory because Intel is muscling in on theirs? If so, we can probably expect an increasingly aggressive marketing stance from other ARM Architecture chipsets like Nvidia’s Tegra; if they don’t protect their territory, Intel’s dual-core chip (due for release this year) and high-end quad-core chip (slated for a 2013 release and tentatively codenamed “Merrifield”) risk shrinking the market significantly for their competitors. And the high-end chipset market is not the only risky place for ARM’s various adaptors – it’s cheap and easy to manufacture chips for low-end Smartphones, and Intel have announced an integrated chip with this purpose in mind, due for release next year. While all of this may be bad news for manufacturing giants like Qualcomm and Intel, it remains excellent news for Smartphone manufacturers – the more aggressively these chipset behemoths war amongst themselves, the more competitively priced the individual components are likely to become. This ensures cheaper Smartphone manufacturing; which, in turn, ensures that more and more Smartphones can be made. Soon they may become completely ubiquitous, even for casual mobile users – excellent news for a high-quality manufacturer of mobile phone peripherals like Mobile Madhouse!