Thanks for this write-up. I wonder what the intended market is looking at price-wise for these? (off or on contract, not sure how the French cell market works)
Orange don't just sell to the French market, they're a pretty big network these days in other places including the UK. I'd assume the main push is going to be take these phones with contracts as it's not a budget handset suitable for PAYG.
"While I fully expect to see North American plays from Intel, it's clear that the company sees initial opportunities in Europe and Asia. If i had to guess at why, I'd say it's likely iPhone related. "
I'd add to that that North American carriers are probably much bigger pains in the rear. Multiple frequency standards, tight levels of control, etc. I'd want to work with what is likely an easier market to develop a presence such that carriers will be asking Intel for phones, rather than Intel asking carriers to use them.
Have we seen a Medfield chip paired with 4G (any flavor) connectivity yet? I doubt there's a technical barrier there but I would tend to think none of the big 4, especially Verizon, are really interested in marketing a top-end smartphone without 4G at this point.
This, and maybe because they are a new player to the market. They have an LTE device coming, and press release says its at second half of 2012. That might be too late for a device that's coming in first half of the year like initial Medfield variants.
"I'm sorry, Dave, I can not do that" [HAL's voice] Windows Phone 8 requirements differ from 7.5 AND Windows 8 (x86 or ARM) is a totally different product
Orange were the partners for the first Windows Mobile phones too, the SPV, or HTC Canary (before people knew who HTC where!)
And the city naming scheme is a few years old now as well, the ZTE Blade (San Fransisco), ZTE Skate (Monte Carlo) etc.
The one issue that I can see is that Orange often customize their phones, often with attrocious results...most of the forums are posts are about debranding.
Hopefully Intel don't let them go too far and put something on that hampers performance, or something silly like their own App Market etc
Dang we see the reversal. ARM is nowhere to be seen in laptop. Even if they show up, why would anyone want a WoA over a tablet? It still can't run Windows for work. What's good is it?
I too think it'd be great if Intel would sell the phone unlocked directly to the consumer. I'm uncertain how it would play with ther carriers, but I'm waiting for the day that we can all buy our phones directly unlocked and just use then on any carrier we wish.
Until the '70s, I think, everyone in the US had to rent their phones from AT&T. If you moved, you had to return the phone and have the phone guy come out and hook up your phone again. Stupid. Well, that's pretty much what we do today with our cells. It's time to end this nonsense and open up the airwaves again.
What carriers? Who's to pi** off? Intel has no market share. In this market, they have no customers. All bets are off.
The larger question here has been why Intel is not selling direct to the carriers after manufacturing the phone (not just reference designs). Glad to hear that they are now doing this for Orange although it appears in a different package.
And too, the issue of selling unlocked phones direct to consumers eliminates the third party allowing cheaper phones and cheaper services. That's really what people want. A phone they can take anywhere with cheaper services that has great performance. The actual savings could be a lot over a 4-5 year service time. Buying a new phone can be subsidized by selling your old phone. If anyone believes that you are not paying for the entire cost of a $700 phone at charges of $100 a month for two years, well, I have a few deals in which you might be interested. Then, of course, there's the continuing $100 per month bill...
Besides, it's the only way to make money in this market. Well, you can be a chip manufacturer too, but the margins are in the phone itself as a system (ala you know who). There are other advantages. As Intel has shown, there is a lot of optimization in controlling the entire design, both in power and performance and tuning the OS to the architecture. Only Intel has the capability to do this outside of you know who. I would hope they are investigating a factory outside of Intel for manufacture.
I think Anand should ask this question directly of Intel. And keep asking until he gets the answer...
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18 Comments
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shomizu9 - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
Thanks for this write-up. I wonder what the intended market is looking at price-wise for these? (off or on contract, not sure how the French cell market works)Johnmcl7 - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
Orange don't just sell to the French market, they're a pretty big network these days in other places including the UK. I'd assume the main push is going to be take these phones with contracts as it's not a budget handset suitable for PAYG.John
IntelUser2000 - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
According to the FT article, they are aiming this device at the lower end of the pricing.LoneWolf15 - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
"While I fully expect to see North American plays from Intel, it's clear that the company sees initial opportunities in Europe and Asia. If i had to guess at why, I'd say it's likely iPhone related. "I'd add to that that North American carriers are probably much bigger pains in the rear. Multiple frequency standards, tight levels of control, etc. I'd want to work with what is likely an easier market to develop a presence such that carriers will be asking Intel for phones, rather than Intel asking carriers to use them.
stadisticado - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
Another possibility that I'm not sure about...Have we seen a Medfield chip paired with 4G (any flavor) connectivity yet? I doubt there's a technical barrier there but I would tend to think none of the big 4, especially Verizon, are really interested in marketing a top-end smartphone without 4G at this point.
IntelUser2000 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
This, and maybe because they are a new player to the market. They have an LTE device coming, and press release says its at second half of 2012. That might be too late for a device that's coming in first half of the year like initial Medfield variants.http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom...
sprockkets - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
By that screen shot you think the OS was still on Froyo or lower.T2k - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - link
Or rather Cupcake or Donut (v1.5-1.6), it's very lame, if I were Orange I'd start thinking about replacing my PR agency.superPC - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
And when you do, just reformat it and install windows 8 consumer preview on it. and review it like a regular PC.CyberAngel_777 - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
"I'm sorry, Dave, I can not do that" [HAL's voice]Windows Phone 8 requirements differ from 7.5
AND Windows 8 (x86 or ARM) is a totally different product
jeremyshaw - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
That's the magic, isn't it? It's X86, not ARM :)cjb110 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
Orange were the partners for the first Windows Mobile phones too, the SPV, or HTC Canary (before people knew who HTC where!)And the city naming scheme is a few years old now as well, the ZTE Blade (San Fransisco), ZTE Skate (Monte Carlo) etc.
The one issue that I can see is that Orange often customize their phones, often with attrocious results...most of the forums are posts are about debranding.
Hopefully Intel don't let them go too far and put something on that hampers performance, or something silly like their own App Market etc
klmccaughey - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
I found a video of the demo for it on Youtube and omg the capabilities look awesome! This thing is a BEAST!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66VeS0_tAJM
nofumble62 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
Dang we see the reversal. ARM is nowhere to be seen in laptop. Even if they show up, why would anyone want a WoA over a tablet? It still can't run Windows for work. What's good is it?Intel 2, ARM 0
Hector2 - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
I too think it'd be great if Intel would sell the phone unlocked directly to the consumer. I'm uncertain how it would play with ther carriers, but I'm waiting for the day that we can all buy our phones directly unlocked and just use then on any carrier we wish.Until the '70s, I think, everyone in the US had to rent their phones from AT&T. If you moved, you had to return the phone and have the phone guy come out and hook up your phone again. Stupid. Well, that's pretty much what we do today with our cells. It's time to end this nonsense and open up the airwaves again.
Smooth2o - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
What carriers? Who's to pi** off? Intel has no market share. In this market, they have no customers. All bets are off.The larger question here has been why Intel is not selling direct to the carriers after manufacturing the phone (not just reference designs). Glad to hear that they are now doing this for Orange although it appears in a different package.
And too, the issue of selling unlocked phones direct to consumers eliminates the third party allowing cheaper phones and cheaper services. That's really what people want. A phone they can take anywhere with cheaper services that has great performance. The actual savings could be a lot over a 4-5 year service time. Buying a new phone can be subsidized by selling your old phone. If anyone believes that you are not paying for the entire cost of a $700 phone at charges of $100 a month for two years, well, I have a few deals in which you might be interested. Then, of course, there's the continuing $100 per month bill...
Besides, it's the only way to make money in this market. Well, you can be a chip manufacturer too, but the margins are in the phone itself as a system (ala you know who). There are other advantages. As Intel has shown, there is a lot of optimization in controlling the entire design, both in power and performance and tuning the OS to the architecture. Only Intel has the capability to do this outside of you know who. I would hope they are investigating a factory outside of Intel for manufacture.
I think Anand should ask this question directly of Intel. And keep asking until he gets the answer...
Smooth
T2k - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - link
...that's one ugly, boring phone - remind me to Google's G1 which was uber-fugly.T2k - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - link
remind=reminds