Intel Mobile Saga Takes A New Twist

Speculation swirls around the Wall Street Journal rumour that the exec in charge of Intel’s modem business, Aicha Evans, is to leave after under a year in the job.

Having achieved a 1% share of the apps processor market in 2015, despite subsidising the mobile business to the tune of $4 billion a year, it is widely thought that Intel’s last throw in mobile would be to try to succeed with a modem.

Intel is said to have assigned 1000 engineers to work on a modem for the iPhone. Success in that would keep Intel in the mobile game a while longer.

Some have said that Intel has won mobile a design-in at Apple, but Ms Evans’s premature departure might suggest that it hasn’t.

On the other hand, Intel is said to have paid $25 million to get Qualcomm exec Venkata “Murthy” Renduchintala on-board last November.

So it could just be the usual exec ego clash type thing