Technology major Intel is betting its future on Android to drive tablet sales in India.
The semiconductor giant has outlined its strategy, which would include an increased focus on tablets and 2-in-1 computers, predominantly running on the Android operating system platform that runs in 80 per cent of smartphones globally.
To achieve this objective, Intel has partnered with original equipment makers such as HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Panasonic and Asus across a range of devices from 8-inch tablets to 2-in-1s, which is industry parlance for computers that can be a tablet and a laptop.
The world’s largest semiconductor company is coming under increasing pressure from a range of competitors that are designing chipsets used in mobility devices based on ARM’s architecture, according to market watchers is also eying a significant play in the smartphones segment.
According to Intel insiders, the Nexus 8 range of smartphones will run Intel’s upcoming Bay Trail 22 nanometer chip, which is a departure from Qualcomm processors that were used in many of the past Nexus handsets.
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker data for calendar year 2013, the overall India tablet shipments was 4.14 million units representing a yearly growth rate of 56.4 per cent over 2012.
To meet this demand, Intel is also working with device makers to bring Intel-powered tablets starting from ₹10,000 range.
Tablet demandIntel estimates the overall tablet demand in Asia Pacific and Japan will be up 32 per cent on a year-on-year in 2014.
“In particular, India, Indonesia, Japan and Australia is growing faster and will generate 59 per cent of tablet demand,” Narendra Bhandari, Director-Software and Servers Group, told Business Line .
The demand for tablets in India is expected to be 16 per cent of Asia Pacific and Japan (excluding China) in 2014, according to analysts.