Intel tried to do gaming graphics cards and it failed, but when it comes to CPUs for desktop and notebooks, it is currently dominating the market. Even the graphics used in Intel’s latest integrated CPUs these days are quite decent for multimedia and even some basic gaming.

Still, Intel is now shifting its focus and it sees Qualcomm as its main competitor in years to come. We heard this from high ranked sources from within Intel who believe that Qualcomm is the only ARM company that has it all, and Intel wants to take it on.

Intel is carefully watching Nvidia and Texas Instruments, again two strong ARM players, but it still thinks Qualcomm has better time to market, more customers and a much stronger portfolio.

Intel should start shipping Medfield just in time for Windows 8, and in case you’ve missed it, Medfield is a SoC (System on Chip) platform that should find its place to a few tablets and probably even some phones next year. Since Intel is trying to speed development up and put as much pressure on ARM players as possible, its next generation SoC will also come before the end of 2012, and it will use the advanced 22nm process, something we won’t see in ARM chips next year.
 
The ARM alliance has one huge advantage going for it and, of course, it is the price. Intel tries to sell its chips for much more than ARM chip designers, so it will probably face an uphill struggle in entry-level and mid-range markets. When it comes to performance, two years ago we’ve had a Moorestown SoC based phone in our hands, that was really bad on standby battery life, but was able to render much more power intensive stuff than any ARM chip at the time.

This time around, Intel seems to be getting things right. The fight is on, and it starts in the first half of 2012. It will be a fun to watch, just like any heavyweight fight, as long you are not in the middle of it.

Also read:

Medfield failure is not an option for Intel