Nokia and Intel turn to Taiwan to support netbook strategies

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Nokia and Intel turn to Taiwan to support netbook strategies

Nokia and Intel are both looking to deepened ties with Taiwan to support their netbook strategies, according to industry reports.

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 2 March, 2009

READ MORE: Intel | Nokia | Netbook

Nokia and Intel are both looking to deepened ties with Taiwan to support their netbook strategies, according to industry reports.

The Finnish giant, whose CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo last week confirmed long standing speculation that the company was looking to enter the cut-down mobile PC segment, is said by DigiTimes of Taiwan to be in negotiations with Taiwanese manufacturers about a joint design and build strategy for its planned 'Sparrow' line, which is expected to run on its own ARM-based platform.

Compal and Foxconn are named as the two prime candidates for the Nokia deal, though no netbook launch is expected until early 2011 at the earliest. Some analyst expect the products to be Symbian-based but Nokia's recent spate of recruitment ads for Linux specialists suggests it will use the Maemo Linux platform that runs on its internet tablet range.

Kallasvuo said in an interview that Nokia was taking a "very active interest" in netbooks and that "we don't have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a cellphone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging".

Meanwhile, Intel is set to collaborate with giant foundry TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) on production of its netbook/MID chip Atom, according to The Wall Street Journal. This would be a significant departure from Intel's policy of manufacturing nearly all its chips inhouse, though most other chipmakers have been shifting towards a degree of outsourcing in recent years to save costs. The deal with TSMC, which already works with Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, is likely to cover the upcoming Moorestown iteration of Atom, which will spearhead Intel's push into smartphones. The first phonemaker committed to use Moorestown in mobile internet devices or phones is LG.