Even as it is grappling with declining sales of semiconductor chips and competition from a resurgent Advanced Micro Devices, Intel Corporation, purveyor of Moore’s Law and other exotic formulations for the chip industry, appears to have bet on the emerging low-cost cellphone segment. The company has introduced its first NOR flash memory products.

Intel says the new products have a new pin sharing package to minimise pin count and are configured to work with low-cost, single-chip baseband and RF solutions from chipset suppliers. Major handset vendors are expected to start introducing low-cost cellphones based on Intel flash products this quarter.

Intel is introducing these products in response to increasing market demand for low-cost phones. The cellphone industry’s GSM Association estimates that only 20 per cent of the world’s population use cell phones, largely because of cellphone costs. "We’re expanding Intel’s proven leadership in NOR flash memory for handsets to the emerging low-cost handset market segment," says Darin Billerbeck, vice-president and general manager of Intel’s Flash Products Group. "We view the low-cost handset market segment as an ongoing growth opportunity and we have a migration path in place to transition our products from 130nm and 90nm process technology to 65nm process technology in 2007," Mr Billerbeck added. According to Intel, its NOR flash memory products have lower density from 32Mb to 256Mb with optional RAM in a multi-chip package.

Windows Live Spaces

Meanwhile, in cyberworld, Microsoft Corp, fighting in a rearguard action against the likes of Yahoo! and Google, has begun rolling out Windows Live Spaces, the self-styled next generation of its blogging service, MSN Spaces. The new service includes social networking features designed to help users discover and connect with friends through their trusted contacts and allows customers to personalise their Windows Live Spaces with gadgets.

"Windows Live Spaces, the next generation of MSN Spaces, is the most widely used blogging service in the world today. There are over six million photos uploaded everyday and 120 million unique visitors each month. Indian users will now be in control through Windows Live Spaces which offers complete choice and customisation for their online experience," says Jaspreet Bindra, country manager, Windows Live & MSN India said.

Mr Bindra says Windows Live Spaces will allow "consumers to tell their story and customise their site with blogs, photo albums, music lists and more."The blog isn’t entirely for altruistic purposes, though. It never is. "Windows Live and Internet-based ad-funded software and service are critical to driving growth for the company, and we are energised about the continued investments we’re making to help provide consumers with a seamless and safer online experience," a senior Microsoft executive says.

Indian IT major Wipro Limited and Motorola Inc. will jointly invest about $20 million (Rs 92 crores) over the next three years in their newly-formed joint venture WMNetServ. "The investment will be in tools and technology and the company is expecting to generate revenues by the third quarter of the current fiscal," said Mr A.L. Rao, chief operating officer, Wipro Limited.

According to Mr Rao, the company will be headquartered in Europe and will have two offices in India which include Bangalore and Delhi. Wipro will have majority stake and the JV is aimed at taping the large-scale outsourcing in network and communication space. The venture is expected to be operational by the end of this month.

The company is targeting $8-$10 billion outsourced telecom services market worldwide, which is expected to touch $48 billion over the next five years. The JV, WMNetserv, will host a Global Network Operation Centre (GNOC) platform that will integrate seamlessly with Motorola’s existing NOCs in North America and

Europe to provide uninterrupted network monitoring capabilities to customers.

Moreover, the company will set up a network operations centre in Delhi and initially employ 50 engineers. WMNetserv will have a Wipro official as the head, while the board of directors will have representation from Wipro’s and Motorola’s senior management.