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Intel walks away from TV business

After failing to gain foothold in market, chipmaker moving resources to focus on tablet computers, smartphones and ultrabooks instead, according to report.
Written by Kevin Kwang, Contributor

Intel is shifting its priorities away from getting its chips into television sets after failing to make headway in the market, choosing instead to focus its energies and resources on "corporate priorities" such as tablets, smartphones and its new category of laptops called ultrabooks.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the world's largest chipmaker had failed to penetrate the TV market and, while it will continue to supply processors to TV set-top box makers, it will not be actively pushing to get its chips into televisions anymore.

Claudine Mangano, an Intel spokeswoman, told Bloomberg that the company will be moving its engineers in its Digital Home Group to focus more on tablet devices, smartphones and the ultrabook laptops it is promoting. The company had announced in August that it was sinking US$300 million for its Ultrabook Fund to encourage hardware and software makers to work on the platform.

"This is a business decision where we're taking those resources and applying them to corporate priorities," she stated.

The report also noted that by walking away from the TV business, Intel is shunning a market earmarked by CEO Paul Otellini to help alleviate the company's reliance on personal computers. The chipmaker had won set-top box orders from Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, and some European TV service providers as well as supplied chips for Google TV devices, for which Intel was a primary partner.

Cody Acree, an analyst at Williams Financial Group, told Bloomberg that the chip giant has been unable to provide a chip that offered significantly different performance from rival offerings and failed to convince TV makers such as Samsung Electronics and Sony that they needed its chips.

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