Intel closes down smart TV push

Intel has abandoned attempts to sell x86 processors to TV manufacturers, concentrating instead on portable devices as the natural home for its Atom-based chips.

The chip company put its weight behind Smart TVs in September 2010, when CEO Paul Otellini demonstrated a Google TV mixing up IM, Facebook and web browsing on top of a live TV transmission. At the time, the company promised a "completely different TV viewing experience, enabling consumers to interact with their TV like never before, seamlessly integrating a broad array of Internet content, broadcast programming, personal content, and virtually unlimited applications — all viewable on one TV screen".

However, there were few sales of the CE4100 system-on-chip (SoC) processor around which Intel's Smart TV initiative was based and the company never announced any new partners beyond those signed up at launch — including Google, Logitech and Sony.

Claudine Mangano, an Intel spokeswoman, told the Bloomberg news service that "[t]his is a business decision where we’re taking those resources and applying them to corporate priorities". The company will continue to supply chips to IP gateway and set-top box manufacturers, a spokesman said.