Texas Instruments (TI) has confirmed that its fifth-generation OMAP chip based on ARM’s Cortex-A15 cores is sampling today and remains on track to power mobile device by early 2013.
The TI spokesperson also clarified that the company would 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.”
Texas Instruments made the above-mentioned remarks to GSM Arena just days after TI exec Greg Delagi told Reuters the corporation was in the process of shifting its chip focus from smartphones to a “broader” market – such as the automotive space – as it seeks a more profitable and stable business.
As expected, TI – whose OMAP chips power Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus – says it will continue to support its customers.
Nevertheless, the industry heavyweight will clearly not be investing in its mobile road map at the same rate as before.
“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,” wrote GSM Arena. “For what it’s worth, we hope they do good as competition always drives innovation.”
Indeed, as AndroidCentral’s Andrew Martonik notes, it is rather “unfortunate” to see TI moving away from the mobile market.
“[TI’s] chips have powered some of the best devices on the market, most recently the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and range of Kindle Fires,” he opined. “Instead of the next generation OMAP 5 platform competing for placement in tomorrow’s smartphones, we may be looking at a market almost completely dominated by Qualcomm, [Nvidia] and Samsung chips.”
