Texas Instruments to cut 1,700 jobs in cost reduction effort

Cutting mobile, cutting jobs

Texas Instruments announced Wednesday it will be cutting its worldwide work force by 1,700 in an effort to cut costs.

The semiconductor company said that as it moves away from its historical focus on the mobile market and focuses on OMAP processors and wireless connectivity solutions, it requires fewer resources.

"We have a great opportunity to reshape our OMAP processor and wireless connectivity product lines to concentrate on embedded markets," Greg Delagi, senior vice president of Embedded Processing, said in a press release, noting that momentum is already building for these new efforts.

"These job reductions are something we do with a heavy heart because they impact people we care deeply about. We will work closely with all employees affected by these changes to provide a range of assistance related to compensation, benefits and job search."

Pennies saved

The cut jobs are expected to save TI about $450 million (UK£284, AUD$433) by the end of next year.

A hit of $325 million (UK£205, AUD$312) is expected as a result of the restructuring, dollars that will drop out of this quarter's earnings.

TI is almost an anomaly in a manufacturing world that, for the most part, is moving toward mobile and away from traditional markets.

In a report from September, Delagi sad that mobile is "less attractive" for Texas Instruments moving forward, marking the beginning of the end for the company's smartphone and tablet plans.

Its OMAP 4470 processor is found in the Kindle Fire HD, but that may be the last major mobile product to see a TI chip inside.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/texas-instruments-to-cut-1700-jobs-in-cost-reduction-effort-1112649

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Amazon kills the Kindle DX, but may revive Texas Instrument’s abandoned chip division

Amazon looks to have discontinued its long-ignored Kindle DX e-reader, and is also rumored to be bidding for Texas Instruments’ processor division, which could give it leverage over competitors Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

Amazon is making headlines today for announcing the death of a product that never quite caught on, the Kindle DX, and for potentially breathing new life into Texas Instruments’ recently abandoned processor division.

Kindle DX dies

First, the Kindle DX. Released in 2009, the combination of an E Ink screen, 9.7-inch screen, free 3G, long battery life, and access to Amazon’s extensive library certainly sounded like a recipe for success. But apart from the big screen, the DX offered little over the smaller, cheaper, and considerably more portable standard Kindle. Couple that with the release of the Apple iPad a year later, and the Kindle DX became another casualty of the tablet revolution. 

Any popularity the DX did have has clearly waned enough for Amazon to admit defeat, as the Kindle DX is no longer directly available on its website, with only third-party companies continuing to gamely advertise the man-sized e-reader. Will it be missed? Like all niche devices, it will always have a hardcore fan base, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone choosing a DX over a Kindle Fire and a standard Kindle e-reader these days.

This is particularly applicable internationally, as Amazon never released the DX outside the United States, preferring to offer an import service instead. Have a guess at how much you’d have to shell out for a DX in the UK back in 2010? A mere $600 or £375. Bargain.

Amazon ponders TI processor purchase

But, the circle of life continues at Amazon, and a rumor has linked the company with the potential purchase Texas Instruments’ processor division, at least according to a reporter for calcalist.com. TheNextWeb.com shows the author of the piece has form too, having scooped Apple’s $500 million acquisition of flash memory company Anobit in 2011.

Texas Instruments announced it would cease investing in mobile processor development during an investor meeting in September, preferring to concentrate on the “embedded chip” market instead. Amazon uses Texas Instruments OMAP processors in its Kindle Fire tablets, so bringing the whole show in-house could be quite the money-saver.

It could also pave the way for the often rumored Amazon smartphone, as it would be one less component to outsource, plus TI chips are used by other companies — including arch rivals Barnes & Noble and Kobo; potentially opening up another revenue stream for Amazon. 

The article says the deal could be worth “billions of dollars,” and that Amazon is currently holding “advanced negotiations.” If it’s all true, its shows just how serious Amazon is about becoming a hardware company with which to be reckoned.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/amazon-kills-kindle-dx-may-buy-texas-instruments-chip-division/

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Amazon to buy Texas Instruments, make Kindle Fire HD processors in-house?

Kindle Fire HD - a chip off the old block

Amazon is reportedly in the last stages of snapping up Texas Instruments' mobile processor business.

Israeli newspaper Calcalist cites a source who reckons that Amazon is in "advanced negotiations" with the chip-maker.

TI's hardware is currently found in the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and it sounds as though Amazon wants to bring the processors in-house in order to save a bit of cash.

Process that

It emerged last week that the online mega-retailer-turned-tablet-maker doesn't make any money on its hardware, including the Fire tablet range, instead bringing in cash from sales of apps, ebooks, films, music and more from its store.

For its part, TI has been looking to offload the mobile processor side of its business for a while now.

It could mean a healthy cash injection for TI as the deal is predicted to be worth "billions of dollars" – the company can put all that lovely cash towards its new focus of embedded chips for cars and that, where it sees dollar-signs in its future.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/amazon-to-buy-texas-instruments-make-kindle-fire-hd-processors-in-house-1104441

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TI says it's not giving up on OMAP chipsets, OMAP 5 on track

Texas Instruments is revamping its strategy regarding its OMAP chipsets and announced that it considers the smartphone and tablet market less attractive and will focus on bringing OMAP to more platforms than wireless gadgets.

Reuters, citing various analysts, reported that it's quite likely that TI will be quitting the smartphone and tablet business altogether. Today, a TI media relations manager contacted us to clarify the company's position.

It will indeed be broadening the reach of its OMAP products, aiming at "embedded applications such as automotive, industrial, enterprise communication, vision and robotics, to grow the OMAP footprint beyond mobile".

TI will also continue its efforts in developing the OMAP chipsets and the fifth generation, the one with Cortex-A15 cores, is on track - it's sampling today and the first consumer products it will power are expected in early 2013.

The statement coming from TI's media relations manager felt a little evasive when it comes to future smartphones and tablets powered by TI OMAP. The company is under a lot of pressure since Qualcomm lures in clients with its integrated LTE modems and the two biggest makers - Apple and Samsung - are making their own chips.

Still, there's an OMAP 4 inside tablets from both Amazon and Barnes&Noble, plus OMAP 5 will be the first with Cortex-A15 cores, which should give the platform a boost.

It remains to be seen how many smartphones and tablets will be launched with TI OMAP chips and how well the company's foray into new territories will work. For what it's worth, we hope they do good as competition always drives innovation.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/clarification_ti_not_giving_up_on_its_chipsets_omap_5_on_track-news-4866.php

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Goodbye OMAP? Texas Instruments to stop investing in mobile processor business

Texas Instruments has announced it will stop investing in mobile chips, and turn its attention to the "embedded processor" market instead.

The saying goes “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” however it appears Texas Instruments took it in a slightly different way to the rest of us, as it has announced it’s taking a step back from the incredibly competitive mobile processor market.

It was TI’s Senior VP of Embedded Processing Greg Delagi who announced the news at an investor meeting on September 25, saying “the [smartphone] opportunity is less attractive as we go forward,” and talked about the market being “dominated by a couple of players.”

While Texas Instruments may not be as well-known as Qualcomm or Nvidia, it is America’s second largest chip manufacturer and its OMAP processors can be found in devices such as the Amazon Kindle tablet, B&N’s new Nook tablets, a wide variety of Huawei smartphones, the Panasonic Eluga, several Motorola Droids and Kobo’s new range of Android tablets too.

Texas Instruments may be taking a step back, but it’s not a total retreat, as Delagi promised that it would continue to support smartphones and tablets that use OMAP chips, but wouldn’t be dedicating the same level of investment as it had done in the past.

What this will mean for the forthcoming OMAP 5 isn’t clear. This exciting chip is expected to start appearing in devices towards the end of this year or early next, and uses ARM’s dual-core Cortex A15 architecture, much like Samsung’s Exynos 5 Dual. A video showing an early test indicated the OMAP 5 was set to be quite a beast, so let’s hope it’s still on its way.

So what will Texas Instruments be doing instead? It’s going to concentrate on something called “embedded processing,” where chips are used in appliances, big industrial machinery and most importantly, cars. Delagi showed the embedded processing market to be worth $18 billion, and that the automotive slice of that pie was worth $6.5 billion alone.

The news has seen Texas Instruments’ stock take a fall, and analysts voice their concern over the decision. That said, others predict that if embedded processing takes off, the move could be very profitable.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/texas-instruments-stops-mobile-processor-investment/

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Texas Instruments withdraws from smartphones, goodbye OMAP

Texas Instruments is dropping from the system-on-chip for smartphones and tablets manufacturing and will give up on its OMAP lineup.

The company’s OMAP boards are less and less popular among mobile manufacturers – most of them bet on Qualcomm, while Samsung and Apple are developing their own solutions (Exynos, A6). The major disadvantage of the OMAP chipset is the lack of on-board 3G/4G modem.

That forces manufacturers who rely on OMAP chipsets to use additional radio chips, which increases battery consumption and production costs. Now you understand why smartphone manufacturers prefer Qualcomm’s complete solutions, rather than this expensive process.

TI says its focus will shift on “to a broader market including industrial clients like carmakers”, though it did not announce specifics and the investors were left wondering.

Anyway, TI will continue to support its current clients, but will significantly reduce efforts on developing new OMAP chipsets.

The news might come shocking for some, as the TI OMAP 5 was expected to be the first chipset with dual Cortex-A15 CPU, and now it's fate is uncertain. Nonetheless, TI OMAP's presence was barely felt on the market, so the company's exit won't create too much of a disturbance.

Source • Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/texas_instruments_backtracks_from_smartphones_goodbye_omap-news-4861.php

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Isis mobile payment system delayed in trial cities

We're a little further from Isis' "near" field communication

Isis is more like "Is-not" in trial cities Salt Lake City, Utah and Austin, Texas. The NFC mobile payment system backed by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile was supposed to roll out to these two locations by the end of the summer, but it is now delayed.

Saying that there's no one reason for the delay, Isis head of marketing Jaymee Johnson told FierceMobileContent, "I would characterize where we are as checking items off the punch list."

That checklist doesn't come with a definitive finish date, however. Johnson only said that the carrier-backed NFC venture will have more updates in October.

Making the point-of-sale for Isis

Despite the delay, Johnson still made the case for Isis as a leading point-of-sale contender. Hundreds of merchants in Salt Lake City and Austin are ready for the mobile wallet system to launch, he told FierceMobileContent.

Likewise, Isis has four leading payment networks waiting to go on the other end: JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, American Express and BarclayCard, according to its website.

Naturally, the Isis mobile wallet app will be compatible with yet-to-be-announced Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile devices. Sprint, not surprisingly, is the only major U.S. carrier missing from the "Isis Ready" carrier list, as it's not part of the joint venture.

Ensuring your mobile payments aren't available to everyone (i.e. thieves), Isis boasts a Wallet PIN for security and allows you to remotely suspend your account if your phone is stolen.

All of these features are available from Isis' NFC competition, Google Wallet, which launched one year ago this month. But the carrier-backed mobile payment system has time; Apple didn't jump on the NFC bandwagon with the iPhone 5 announcement.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/isis-mobile-payment-system-delayed-in-trial-cities-1097216

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