ARM thinks it will be powering half of all tablets (if not the vast majority of them) by 2011, while Intel already has a processor roadmap in place for this emerging market. And what about AMD? Well, they’re not as gung-ho as the other major chip makers, and instead will wait until market demand picks up, says Rich Bergman, AMD senior vice president and general manager of Products Group.
Is anyone else feeling a sense of déjà vu here? This is essentially the same approach the No. 2 chip maker took with the netbook market, and now that it’s clear netbooks are here to stay, AMD is playing a losing game of catch-up with Intel whose Atom platform has become synonymous with netbooks.
The irony here is that AMD says it will focus on its Bobcat processor for netbooks for 2011. Given that netbooks aren’t going anywhere, that’s not a bad strategy, but ignoring tablets until Intel and ARM have a stranglehold on the market could have AMD in this same position 1-2 years down the line. In less than two months, Apple has already sold over 2 million iPads, and there are a flurry of competing tablets at the ready that will launch before the end of the year. It’s pretty clear that tablets are the next big thing in computing, the only question is how long will it take AMD to realize this, and will it be too late when they do?
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