Intel leaving 5G modem business, about 2000 jobs on the line

[er557]

They will continue to develop though in areas of bluetooth and wifi of next gen devices.
But they cant afford to keep employees without purpose.

 

[Vayra86]

Cool, source? Its a topic headline now with two lines of text...

EDIT: Thanks!

 

[er557]

Intel quits 5G modem business hours after Apple settles with Qualcomm

Intel was reportedly struggling to produce 5G chips in time for the 2020 iPhone.

arstechnica.com

apparently , they dont see future profits there, as ceo Bob Swan mentioned.

 

[ShurikN]

apparently , they dont see future profits there, as ceo Bob Swan mentioned.

It's more like, their 5G never existed to begin with, nothing but smoke and mirrors, and a bunch of fake chips. Charlie from semiaccurate talked about this several times in the past.

Why did Intel kill off their modem program?

Minutes after the Qualcomm/Apple settlement yesterday Intel announced they were shelving 5G modem development.

semiaccurate.com

 

[SoNic67]

All the radio chips start the same way - not existing. Sure, the Marketing folks are sometimes (always?) too eager to over-promise, forcing engineers hand. As an engineer, I hate those guys.

Intel intended to get a piece of the action if the sales margins would justify spending the R&D money. Now that Qualcomm reached a settlement with Apple, that profit margin looks like it will be too slim for Intel. They have bigger fish to fry (diversified IP portfolio, better returns)... Qualcomm doesn't.


As for that article... an Intel hater doing a hit piece. He suggests that the R&D cost is always recuperated by selling the first few units and Intel are bad because they "lost money". That's puerile, it's always a long game, companies might post losses for years before they can start making money on certain products. For reference Qualcomm was on red in 2009, 2015, 2017, and this year 2019. The WHOLE company, not just the "modem" section...

 

[Bill_Bright]

But they cant afford to keep employees without purpose.

Oh bullfeathers! Of course they can afford it. Where does it say they can't? In fact, where does it say anything about laying off anyone?

It is best not to add your own commentary when there is no basis in fact. In fact, it is wrong to do so! It just spews falsehoods and speculation that misleads others and has the potential to go viral and snowball out of control fueling more falsehoods and speculation. And it actually does a disservice to those you are trying to inform. Not cool!

Here is Intel News Release - source of the truth. Note there is nothing there about employee numbers or their possible fates.

Here is the MacRumors report. See anything about jobs maybe being lost? Nope! And note they correctly cite the Intel news release.
Here is the Engadget report. Anything about jobs there? About Intel being unable to afford anything? Nope and nope! And they also correctly cite the official source.

Intel is worth over $260 billion! They have over 100,000 employees. They can easily absorb the losses and they can easily shuffle those 2000 people into other projects. The question is not about being able to afford it. The question is, does it make good business sense? It often makes very good business sense to keep highly trained and skilled labor floating in other departments for awhile than to let them go and hope you can find quality labor down the road.

Keeping people informed is great - but not if done with a bunch of personally added, totally unsubstantiated falsehoods.

As for that article... an Intel hater doing a hit piece.

Based on what the actual Intel New Release says, I don't think the ArsTechnica author is an Intel hater. Not sure about some of the readers who commented to his article, however.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

an Intel hater doing a hit piece means less than donkey shit

 

[SoNic67]

I was referring to the article in the second post: https://semiaccurate.com/2019/04/18/why-did-intel-kill-of-their-modem-program/
Starts with: "There is no way to sugar coat Intel’s modem story, it has been a flaming disaster from the start." Later he keeps taking about "slush funds"... when he is talking is about Intel own money!
AFIK they can burn it on whatever deem interesting to them, there is nothing close to the definiton of "slush":

Definition of SLUSH FUND

a fund raised from the sale of refuse to obtain small luxuries or pleasures for a warship's crew; a fund for bribing public officials or carrying on corruptive propaganda; an unregulated fund often used for illicit purposes… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

Definition of slush fund

1 : a fund raised from the sale of refuse to obtain small luxuries or pleasures for a warship's crew
2 : a fund for bribing public officials or carrying on corruptive propaganda
3 : an unregulated fund often used for illicit purposes

 

[Bill_Bright]

I was referring to this article...

Ah! Yeah there are always some who love to relish in the failures of others. I think the author is being truthful, just likes to add too much fluff and attitude to the story instead of simply reporting the facts. Sadly, trying to entertain and earn ratings seems to be the primary goal in journalism these days.

 

[er557]

Hi there, @Bill_Bright
I was not commenting anything my own, instead I quoted from my local news site with credible info, from today, not the articles that were published in april you cited, this info is apparently new.
So sorry for the mis-understanding, I hereby link to the translation of the original article.
Appology accepted...(just kidding)

150 מעובדי אינטל בישראל עומדים בפני סכנת פיטורים

מדובר בחלק מ-2000 עובדי אינטל בעולם שעלולים לאבד את מקום עבודתם מכיוון שהתמחותם היא בתחום המודמים לדור 5 בטלפונים החכמים - זאת בעקבות הודעתו של מנכ"ל החברה העולמית בוב סוואן כי החברה תצא לחלוטין מהתחום

translate.google.co.il

 

[Bill_Bright]

I quoted from my local news site with credible info, from today,

But did you read the source materials? The thousands (never saw 2000) of employees at risk of being laid off were across the entire company and not just in this 5G modem issue.

 

[er557]

potato- pottata,
nevermind, I just hope most of them get to keep their jobs.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Me too.