2H2012: Intel StudyBook tablet PC targets emerging markets.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Intel is set to push a tablet PC product codenamed StudyBook to target emerging markets and will adopt the same sales model as its Classmate PC.

 The StudyBook tablet PC will feature a 10-inch panel with Intel's Medfield platform and adopt dual-operating systems and will target the emerging markets such as China and Brazil.

Intel's Classmate PC project has been operating for about five years and the company has already established a partnership with many emerging countries. The StudyBook tablet PC will be released in the second half of 2012 and in addition to the education procurement market, Intel also hopes to push the product into regular retail channels priced below US$299.

Second-tier notebook maker Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), which has close relationship with Intel and is also the OEM of Classmate PC, is expected to manufacture the StudyBook for Intel, while China-based Malata will also receive the tablet PC orders from Intel.

Intel and Lenovo have also launched a 10.1-inch Classmate PC, featuring Atom N2600 and Windows 7, in Argentina and the machine is priced at US$300-400 and has already received orders for 158,000 units in the country.

China: Samsung to build a mobile chip US$7Billion factory in Xian.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

China: Samsung to build a mobile chip US$7Billion factory in Xian.

Samsung has said it will invest a total of around US$7 billion to establish a manufacturing organisation in China focusing on mobile device memory, with a factory likely to be opened in Xi’an. The investment, which has been approved by the company’s board of directors, will initially be US$2.3 billion and will total US$7 billion over the next several years.

The company said it is “considering” building a factory in Xi’an to produce 10nm-class NAND Flash memory for mobile phones and music players ”to meet growing market demand for NAND products.”

Bloomberg cites US analyst group IHS iSuppli as saying that demand for flash memory - used to store media files including photos, videos, apps and music on mobile devices – will increase by 49 percent between 2010 and 2015. By 2015, IHS iSuppli forecasts that media tablets will account for 17 percent of global NAND shipments, up from 9 percent in 2011.

Samsung produces memory for Apple’s iPhone and iPad as well as its own mobile devices. It opened a new US$10.6 billion facility making NAND flash and DRAM memory in South Korea in September and has a plant in Austin, Texas which makes memory and logic chips, including application processors for mobile phones.

It was reported in January that Samsung Group planned to invest around US$6.5 billion in smartphone and tablet chip technology this year, as part of a larger investment programme across the company.

Samsung is known for making significant investments into technologies ahead of rivals, which has translated into success with flash chips, computer memory chips and LCD flat-screens.