Intel CEO says pay to play is working to increase the chipmaker's tablet share

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said on Tuesday, that the silicon slinger's strategy to increase its share of the tablet market is working. The problem is that this strategy revolves around Intel paying manufacturers to use its processors, which obviously is costly for the company. This year, the chip maker has set a goal to quadruple its presence in tablets, with a target to have Intel inside 40 million slates in 2014.

To reach this lofty goal, Intel is paying some manufacturers for the cost of developing tablets that will run on Intel's technology. Most slates use chips that are based on technology from ARM. Intel hopes that by agreeing to pay manufacturers to produce a tablet that will run on Intel's chips, these device builders will continue to use Intel for future models.

Seeing that this strategy has paid off for the tablet market, will Intel employ it for smartphones, another device where it trails ARM by a huge margin? Krzanich hopes that the answer is no. The executive will soon be setting a target for its 2015 smartphone shipments and does not want to subsidize smartphone manufacturers like it did with tablets. Intel has the upcoming 3G Sofia chip for low cost devices in developing countries, and a 4G version for the U.S.

source: Reuters