Intel said today it could generate sales worth tens of billions of dollars with chips for cellphones and handheld PCs.
The average cellphone has $60 worth of silicon components. With over 400 million handsets sold last year alone, the market is worth $24 billion annually, Intel said.
As phones become smarter and sales continue to rise, Intel wants a large chunk of that market.
To that end, it unveiled its Personal Internet Client Architecture today. Intel said it has designed all key components of wireless devices on a single chip.
British Telecommunications said it would develop applications that could work with Intel's PCA architecture.
Intel's sales totalled $33.7 billion in 2000 - over three-quarters of which were generated by microprocessors and equipment for personal computers and server computers.
But as computer market growth is slowing - the US PC market even dipped into negative territory in the first quarter of 2001 - Intel is investing heavily in communications technology for Internet traffic computers and wireless devices.
The wireless semiconductor area is dominated by firms such as Texas Instruments, Philips Semiconductors, Motorola, ST Microelectronics and Toshiba.
But Intel said it has an advantage as phones become small computers that have to process data information as well as voice.