Intel and Rockchip achieve a strategic cooperation

On May 27th, 2014, Intel announced that it has reached a strategic agreement with Rockchip Microelectronics Co., Ltd. Both parties will launch solutions based on Intel architecture and communication technology for global entry-level android tablet PCs. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will cooperate to launch the Intel-branded mobile system chip (SoC) platform. The new quad-core platform will be based on Intel Atom processor cores and integrate Intel 3G modem technology.

Amanda Review:

After the end of the IDF 2014 Shenzhen conference, the Chinese market has been reported that Intel's X86 leader will invest in Rockchip's ARM chip factory. The so-called windless, Intel's investment in Rockchip's news has finally come true, the two sides have reached a strategic agreement.

As we all know, Intel chips are the dominant players in the PC market. However, as the PC market continues to shrink, in the past two years Intel has also begun to force the smart phone and tablet PC market, especially in the tablet PC market, Intel hopes to take advantage of China's tablet PC makers to obtain a place. At the Intel Technology Summit held in Shenzhen in early April this year, Intel proposed to rely on the Chinese market to achieve the goal of shipping 40 million tablet computers this year.

From the global distribution of tablet shipments, the market has clearly three pillars, the first is the high-end brand models headed by Samsung and Apple, and the second is the Windows8 and Android tablet vendors launched from the PC to the tablet area, such as Lenovo, ASUS, Acer, HP, Dell, etc., and finally the mainland China original equipment manufacturers (OEM), the largest number of low-cost white card Android tablet. Among them, Apple and Samsung both use their own processors, chip factories can only eat the market left behind PC brand factory and white card manufacturers, and 100 million units of the white card tablet, naturally become the chip manufacturers struggle to eat the main pie . At present, this market is dominated by MediaTek, Quanzhi, and Ruixin Micro's three chip makers, and has formed a three-way pattern. According to the latest data from the market research organization Digitimes, the mainland flat panel application processor suppliers shipped in the first quarter of 2014. The market share of Rockchip, MediaTek, and Quanzhi accounted for 28.9%, 25.3%, and 23.5%, respectively. Occupy nearly 80% of the market share. It is not easy for Intel to get a share of it, but to achieve the 40 million shipment target, it also means that Intel must win the support of these vendors.

In fact, in order to enter the low-end tablet market, Intel has begun to embrace the white card tablet industry. In addition, Intel has also increased its investment to give Shenzhen tablet makers that use its mobile chips a large subsidy. It is reported that the total amount of subsidies reached 1 billion US dollars.

So why did Intel invest in Rockchip? The opinion of the industry is to attack the ARM. The author also holds an opinion on this view. At present, in the mobile terminal market, ARM has firmly occupied the dominant position of the mobile chip market, and Intel certainly will not sit back and wait for such a situation. In addition, cooperation between the two sides can also complement each other. From a technical point of view, Intel's strengths lie in its architecture and modem technology, while Rockchip's advantage lies in mobile chip design capabilities. The two sides are complementary. From a market perspective, Intel can quickly gain share, and Rockchip can use it to find a backing.

As a chip manufacturer of the ARM camp, the current mobile chip launched by Rockchip will occupy a very large market share in the low-end tablet PC market. Intel and Rockchip Micro will undoubtedly enhance its influence in the low-end market, and at the same time, In the future, it will increase the savings of the X86 camp. Of course, this does not mean that Ruixin Micro's product line will all fall to the X86 camp, but it does not rule out that Rockchip Micro will adopt the X86 architecture on some specific product lines. Although the cooperation between the two parties will not shake ARM's position in the mobile terminal market, it is not good news.

For Rockchip, what is lacking is the baseband technology. The cooperation between the two parties will undoubtedly enrich the company's product line. In addition, with the support of Intel's big tree, it is also conducive to shaping its high-end brand image, and even into the international platform. There are also industry speculations that Ruixinwei cooperates with Intel because Ruixin is in urgent need of capital operation. However, guessing guessing, according to Rockchip's micro-level argument, Ruixin Micro never loses money, and everything is considered in terms of strategy and technology.

At present, China's tablet PC shipments are still growing rapidly. In order to seize this market share, Intel needs to use the power of more local companies to build its own ecosystem. Intel single-handedly subsidized the majority of domestic white tablet PC makers, investing in China's chip companies in one hand, which shows that it attaches great importance to the Chinese market and its determination to attack the tablet PC market. Perhaps this is only the first step. The current cooperation between Intel and Rockchip Micro is based on the 3G phone tablet, and does not rule out the future cooperation between the two parties on mobile phones.