The Fall of Intel Corp, Really? (INTC, MRVL, QCOM)

Interesting read from Bloomberg.com today about how the increased usage of smaller devices is going to hurt Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) since more people will be going online with smartphones, tablets, and eReaders.  Intel doesn't make chips for those devices, that game belongs to Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Marvel Tech (NASDAQ:MRVL), and Freescale Semiconductor.

Here's a look at shares of Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Marvel Tech (NASDAQ:MRVL) - Google Links provided below

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp.’s position as the gateway to the Internet will come under attack in 2010 as more consumers start going online via phones, tablets, e-readers and scaled- down laptops.

Qualcomm Inc., Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. are among the chipmakers demonstrating new kinds of Internet devices at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Their goal: persuade consumers to ditch their Intel-powered personal computers as the primary way of going online.

“The next billion users that are going to connect to the Web aren’t going to be connected by the PC,” said Henri Richard, head of sales at Austin, Texas-based Freescale. “It’s going to be a multitude of devices.”

Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, makes more than 80 percent of PC processors -- the brains of computers. It aims to use its Atom product, which runs small laptops known as netbooks, to break into chips for wireless devices, a market IDC estimates will increase 14 percent to more than $46 billion in 2010. Its rivals are heading in the other direction: using phone chips to woo users of PCs and consumer electronics.

While the PC will remain the main way for people to go online, portable devices are chipping away at that dominance -- with mobile phones leading the charge. Qualcomm, Freescale, Marvell and Texas Instruments Inc. are using chip technology developed by ARM Holdings Plc.

Reaching a Billion

By 2013, the number of phones regularly being used to access the Web will exceed 1 billion for the first time, a fivefold increase from 2006, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC. Over the same time period, the number of Internet-connected PCs will rise to 1.6 billion from 754 million, according to IDC.

Keep Reading - Click Here>>