At this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Intel unveiled its "accelerated mobile strategy" that aims to increase the company's presence in the expanding mobile and tablet market. Contained in this strategy is the previously mentioned launch of the dual-core Atom "Clover Trail+" SoC, the XMM 7160 4G LTE Modem and the company's plans for tablets and emerging markets.
The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the smallest and lowest power multimode LTE modems (LTE / DC-HSPA+ / EDGE) that can be integrated into a variety of devices such as smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks. The XMM 7160 will support 15 LTE bands simultaneously and will begin shipments to OEMs in the first half of 2013. The introduction of this modem is expected to coincide with a general optimization of the company's portfolio of SoC devices including the upcoming 22 nm Merrifield Atom SoC.
Intel also placed considerable emphasis on its expanding global presence and the "tremendous opportunity" offered by developing markets, specifically focusing on the Atom Z2420 "Lexington" which has been used in value smartphones by Acer, Lava, Safaricom and Etisalat. The latter company will be debuting an Intel-based handset in Egypt this April and marks the first introduction of the Z2420 in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.
Finally, Intel aims to launch a range of "Tablets with Intel Inside" based on the upcoming quad-core Atom "Bay Trail" SoC. The Bay Trail platform is the most powerful Atom CPU so far and the company claims that it will "help enable new experiences in designs as thin as 8mm that have all day battery life and weeks of standby". The platform is expected to arrive in Q4 2013 and Intel has announced that it is working with Compal, ECS, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron to bring Bay Trail tablets to the market running both Android and Windows 8.