Intel CEO vows to make splash in tablet market

Intel CEO Paul Otellini praised Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad for breathing new life into the tablet market, and said that the chipmaker will work to dominate the category.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini During the company's third quarter earnings conference call, in which Otellini and other Intel executives crowed of the company's strong performance, the Intel chief spent a significant period of time discussing tablets.

Otellini said Apple has done a "wonderful job" in re-inventing the tablet category, but that he thinks tablets will have only a marginal impact on PC sales. Nevertheless, he said tablets represent a new growth opportunity for Intel. "We fully expect to participate broadly and profitably in this category and that, in the end, the tablet category will be additive to our bottom line and not take away from it," he said.

Intel reported a 59 percent jump in earnings, and said its third quarter profit jumped to $2.96 billion, dramatically up from a profit of $1.86 billion in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 18 percent in the quarter.

Intel has beefed up its presence in the mobile computing space recently. The company recently agreed to buy Infineon's wireless chipset unit for around $1.4 billion. Intel also expects phones with its architecture to begin rolling out next year. However, many tablets that are on the market or are coming to market soon are running on processors based on architecture from Intel rival ARM Holdings.

Otellini made clear that Intel is going to "utilize all of the assets at our disposal to win this segment: the world's best silicon technology, the world's best architecture, and our global scale." He added that in the "the coming months and quarters you will see Intel solutions in Windows, Android and MeeGo operating systems across a variety of form factors and price points" for tablets.

For more:
- see this SeekingAlpha conference call transcript
- see this PC Magazine article
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see this CNet article

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