After dropping cell phone baseband biz, TI isn't looking back

Texas Instruments' decision last year to shift away from baseband chips for cell phones changed the balance of the chip market and made investors wary of TI's fortunes. However, the company is sticking with its strategy and remains confident that its focus on analog chips will make up for the loss in revenue from its mobile phone business.

"I don't think we've delivered on the potential of what's fully there," Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton said in an interview with Bloomberg, referring to analog chips. "The exciting story about analog is the size of the opportunity." Templeton said he expects the analog chip business to grow at a pace of 20 percent per year.

The company's move away from the wireless baseband business--sparked in 2007 by Nokia's decision to end its exclusive relationship with TI, continues to nag at analysts and investors. Indeed, TI's stock has suffered major fluctuations since the beginning of last year.

Nonetheless, TI said that analog chips made up 40 percent of the company's $2.46 billion in revenue in the second quarter, while the baseband business made up 24 percent. The company is going to continue to make application processors for cell phones, and also is going to focus on embedded chipsets. 

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article [1]

Related Articles:
TI's balancing act in move from baseband chips [2]
TI raises guidance for the second quarter [3]
TI claims savings from shift away from baseband chips [4]
Texas Instruments' profit plummets 97% [5]
Archos, TI to release Android-based MID [6] [7]

Article modified Oct. 4 to clarify TI's participation in the wireless industry.