Intel plans to release 4G modem annually
Intel is going to release a new 4G modem every year. The first smartphones with the XMM 7480 will be released in the second half of 2017. Intel’s current modem, the XMM 7360, is in the iPhone 7 and contributes to good quarterly results.
Intel is still a small player in the modem market. Qualcomm is the market leader, but the group wants to change this by releasing new products every year. That says Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in an explanation of the quarterly figures. Currently, providers are testing the XMM 7480 presented at the beginning of this year and the first products with the modem should be released in the second half of next year. Next year, Intel will introduce a new modem that will hit the market in 2018.
The company is thus trying to maintain the success of the XMM 7360. Apple chose to integrate this modem into its iPhone 7 devices, which has a positive effect on Intel’s quarterly results. Intel places modem revenue under the “other” category of its Client Computing Group, and revenue grew 53 percent to $634 million.
It is not known whether Apple will also opt for the XMM 7480. However, Intel is lagging behind Qualcomm with this model: it concerns a modem with a maximum download speed of 450Mbit/s, while Qualcomm has all its X16 modems ready for 1Gbit/s download speeds. In theory, Intel could give its modem a firmware upgrade: the hardware of the XMM 7480 supports 4x carrier aggregation and 256-qam, but Intel hasn’t announced anything about this yet.
The quarterly revenue of the Client Computing Group, the main business unit that sells CPUs, rose 5 percent year-on-year to $8.9 billion. In addition to modem sales, it was mainly stock replenishments by customers that caused the increase. In the fourth quarter, this effect no longer plays a role and in view of the persistently ailing PC sales, Intel expects a decrease in turnover at Client Computing Group in the fourth quarter. In addition, Intel expects higher costs to start up the 10nm production of processors and the production of 3D XPoint memory.
Intel’s quarterly revenue was $15.6 billion, up 9 percent from last year. Profits were $3.38 billion compared to $3.11 billion a year ago.