Texas Instruments to shrink smartphone business
Texas Instruments (TXN) on Tuesday revealed plans to shift its focus away from its mobile processor business and target broader markets such as industrial clients in the car industry, Reuters reported. The company sees its processor growth slowing, although it is still profitable, and is looking to expand in order to maintain growth. In recent years, Texas Instruments has lost ground in the wireless industry to rivals Qualcomm (QCOM) and NVIDIA (NVDA), both of which also produce mobile processors. The company will continue to support its customers, however it will not invest in supporting future roadmaps to the same degree as before.
“We believe that opportunity is less attractive as we go forward,” Greg Delagi, senior vice president for embedded processing, said during an investor meeting.
Some analysts are now under the impression that the company might exit the smartphone and tablet industry entirely. “TI made it very clear they no longer want to be in the business of proving application processors for smartphones or tablets,” said Longbow Research analyst JoAnne Feeney. “What remains uncertain is for how long they’ll support customers.”
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