It looks as if Intel will stop providing pay outs – in euphemistic terms – subsidies, for people making mobile phones using its technology.
According to Taiwanese wire Digitimes, while Intel had an apparently sparkling set of financial results recently, it is going to restrict these payouts to all but the biggest players
It is significant that despite these sparkling results, Intel’s mobile unit, as we reported yesterday, was a loss making venture. Intel beancounters don’t like making losses.
Digitimes said that Intel is concentrating on reducing costs for the bill of materials making up smartphones. The writing on the wall for Intel has been clear to the chip giant for quite some time. Vendors using ARM chips and non-Windows operating systems feel a little bit freer to pursue their own path.
According to the same report, Asustek, one of the bigger Taiwanese vendors, ordered over seven million Intel Atom processors but the level of rebates remains unclear.
Asustek will almost certainly continue getting pay offs from Intel because it’s estimated it will soak up at least fifteen million processors during the calendar year 2015.
