WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.760 Considering how important smartphones are these days, you might be a little surprised 00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:09.120 that more companies haven't tried to market their own. And perhaps none is more surprising than 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:13.680 Intel, especially as they're one of the world's biggest producers of both semiconductors and 00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:19.040 networking equipment. So why doesn't Intel have its own line of phones? Well, you can learn more 00:00:19.040 --> 00:00:24.560 about why they specifically don't make CPUs for phones right up here, but it turns out that they 00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:30.480 actually did have their own line of actual phones not all that long ago. Back in 2011, 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:34.720 when my age still started with a 2, Intel announced it would try its hand at bringing 00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:40.720 a smartphone to market with a processor codamed Medfield. Our sister channel Linus Tech Tips 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:45.440 actually looked at it back at CES 2013 and it seemed like a capable little device, 00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:50.080 with reviews comparing it favorably to the then current iPhone 4s. 00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:54.400 Intel's phones were interesting not just because they were, well, from Intel, 00:00:54.400 --> 00:01:00.080 but they were also powered by an x86 processor, the same architecture you can find in your full 00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:06.960 fat desktop PC. The idea was that by equipping phones with CPUs more capable than the more common 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:13.040 ARM chips, Intel could deliver better performance at a lower price, especially as Intel already had 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:18.720 literal decades of experience producing x86 chips for the mass market. The idea was that Intel had 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:25.280 a full-fledged reference design for an entire phone built around the Medfield CPU. Intel then 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:30.320 ended up partnering with cell providers in the UK and in India to get these phones distributed. 00:01:30.320 --> 00:01:35.760 However, these gadgets were never popular enough to propel Intel into the minds of consumers 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:42.400 as a viable choice for phones, but why not? The reason is that Intel was rather 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.280 late to the smartphone party as it were, which is also part of the reason they still don't even 00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:52.640 make processors for phones, let alone entire devices. Long story short, Intel's corporate 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:58.800 strategy for a long time was to focus on one core product, and that was processors for personal 00:01:58.800 --> 00:02:04.880 computers, not smaller mobile devices. Intel simply failed to recognize the potential of the 00:02:04.880 --> 00:02:09.280 mobile market until the iPhone was already the coolest thing on the block, and by then, 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:14.800 the portion of the market that wasn't controlled by Apple was quickly being eaten up by ARM-based 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:20.400 Android phones. Making matters worse was that when Medfield phones finally did arrive on the 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:27.920 scene in 2012, Intel was using technology that wasn't particularly compelling next to its competitors. 00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:33.200 The phones were still using 3G technology even though this was around the time that LTE really 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:38.240 started to take off. The iPhone 5, for example, came out the same year, representing the first 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:43.600 iPhone that supported LTE. Although Intel did intend to put LTE in subsequent phones, 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:46.880 they were in a poor position because they didn't offer it from the get-go. So 00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:50.800 then you have the fact that Intel's phones were designed to be 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:58.160 mid-range products, meaning that they didn't really have a flagship to make themselves stand out. 00:02:58.160 --> 00:03:01.840 Think about how Samsung, for example, has multiple smartphone lines, 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:06.560 but has gained consumer familiarity through its high-end Galaxy S series. 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:12.240 One more thing, Intel also struggled to find partners to manufacture Medfield devices. You see, 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:17.440 Intel was notorious in the industry for charging rather high amounts to manufacturers 00:03:17.440 --> 00:03:22.880 who use its chips. They were able to get away with this with PC companies as Intel had dominated 00:03:22.880 --> 00:03:28.800 the desktop CPU market for so long, but contracting phone manufacturers to build Intel phones was 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:33.280 more difficult, as they didn't want to pay Intel tons of money for the privilege, 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:36.480 and major players who did have money like Samsung, 00:03:36.480 --> 00:03:40.400 while they didn't have any desire to seed control over the intellectual property 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:45.360 inside their phones to Intel. The result of all this is that Intel never really got a 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:50.720 foothold in the mobile market, and although they did end up making smartphone modems that 00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:56.240 allowed them to connect to cell networks, they even sold that part of the company to Apple just 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:01.600 last year. So I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes it just doesn't make sense to 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:06.960 show up fashionably late. The cool kids may have already left and made billions of dollars 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.520 selling phones that people actually want. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:14.880 give it a thumbs up, get subscribed, and be sure to hit us up in the comments section 00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:18.240 with your suggestions for topics that we should cover in the future.