03/06/2007, 3:40pm, EST
Tuesday, March 6th
Apple's iPhone draws Intel praise
Apple's forthcoming iPhone offers far more features than competing mobile phones, and the Intel exec believes that handset manufacturers will have to switch to more powerful yet energy-efficient processors to compete, according to Computing.
Intel executives earlier this year said that CPU at the heart of Apple's iPhone is only tangentially an Intel processor. The iPhone, the Intel exec said, is driven by an Xscale processor, which found its inception at Intel but whose design was sold to the Marvell Technology Group in June of last year. Intel, however, will provide the NAND flash memory used for storage.
Intel, Computing notes, is developing an ultra low power micro-architecture based on the same Core chips that power Apple's desktops and laptops. It features integrated graphics and will be able to power mobile devices with a few milliwatts of power. The first version of the chip is slated for release later this year, according to the report, and will be able to run all existing applications and services.
Motorola reacts defensively to iPhone
Meanwhile, Apple's former mobile-phone partner Motorola CEO Ed Zander last week seemed to be on the defensive when answering questions about the iPhone. After calling it a niche player because of its high price point, Zander said the product could only be judged after it was available, but did marginalize the much touted touchscreen functionality, according to the MyiPhone blog.
"Let’s see the product for goodness' sake," Zander told attendees at the Goldman Sachs’ 2007 Technology Investment Symposium in Las Vegas last week. "It's like waiting for a baby."
"You won't like what I'm about to say, but you spend too much time in the U.S. Touchscreens have been in use in Asia for years," Zander said about the iPhone's touchscreen technology. "[The iPhone] is the Apple UI, a Mac-patched phone in your pocket."
Zander, however, conceded that Apple's phone may have merits as a consumer device, according to the report. "I'm sure it's a great phone."
Filed under: industry
, 
, 8
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
Z
do ya think moto is flooding the mrkt or what??
LG seems to have taken that crown with the Chocolate, while the iPhone is obviously the next hot phone.
I don't exactly know what we expect people from Nokia, Motorola, Vodaphone, etc to say. They're not going to admit 'yeah, we've got a team of people working out how to do this stuff, and we're negotiating on patent royalties right now'.
They're not that stupid. They know this is Apple's first phone. They know Apple are pricing it at a premium because they can, like a games console at launch. So the race is whether they can develop an answer before Apple/Cingular cut the price.
It only took his team 2 years to iron out the kinks in the Q. They were talking about it for at least a year before anyone even saw a beta unit.
Dissing the iPhone timeline is a little of the pot calling the kettle black. He's just bitter that his Q is no longer "hot".