effort to popularize its Atom Bay Trail solutions started subsidizing Android tablets for as much as $51 per tablet — which is quite a lot. The idea being helping tablet makers build slates with Intel processors, and the company also offered to pay for extra component costs. Basically, Intel hoped to turn manufacturers away from processors utilizing the ARM architecture, which is used by everyone from Apple and Samsung to Qualcomm and NVIDIA. However, as reported here, overall the chip giant is expected to lose $4 billion on mobile chips this year, and even a company like Intel cannot handle such drastic a burn through its profits. Although Intel has seen steady growth on the Windows tablet front, particularly with Windows 8.1 devices, many of which are now available for under the $100 mark, the company has no choice but to phase out tablet subsidies for Android. The arrival of dirt cheap Android tablets is set for an end in the next few months, unless of course another chip maker jumps in with a strategy like this. Fat chance of that happening, though, and with that token, it appears that Intel might have to shift focus completely towards Windows powered devices, both budget and premium.]]>
