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Intel has been struggling as of late in many different aspects of their company. PC sales are stalling and developing chips for mobile devices have yet to take off. In an attempt to fix these issues, Intel has hired someone with experience in mobile devices, as well as other areas- ex-Qualcomm senior executive Amir Faintuch.
Intel failed to stay ahead of the curve when smartphones started to gain ground. Instead, Qualcomm became one of the more preferred companies for the special chips needed to operate a mobile device-system on chips or SoCs. The popularity of Qualcomm throughout the mobile industries has given Faintuch a great deal of experience in the field. Which is part of the reason that Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich decided to bring Faintuch on board. Faintuch’s history at Qualcomm includes the oversight of networking for the company as well as being the president of Qualcomm Atheros.
When Faintuch starts working for Intel, he’ll be working amongst the top executives as the president and co-general manager of the Platform Engineering Group. Former leader of the group Josh Walden will also be joining Faintuch. Intel spokesman, Chuck Mulloy, announced the new addition as well as saying, “We want to accelerate our success rate with SoCs and get the designs aligned and the roadmaps aligned to do that,” Mulloy continued to say, “We’ve made good progress but there’s more to be done. Amir has extensive management experience and a strong resume.”
Hiring from the competition isn’t really like Intel, but this could just be another sign of the state of the company. However, in response to the news, Qualcomm has made no other comment but to confirm the Faintuch leaving Qualcomm. However, this isn’t the first time the two companies have seen employees switch sides. Back in 2012, Anand Chandrasekher, a senior executive at Intel for 25 years left and went to Qualcomm.
This is just another one of the many changes that Krzanich has made since taking over Intel in 2013. Another untraditional move has been to allow other chipmakers access to Intel’s factories for a price. Intel has also teamed up with a company called Rockchip who specializes in SoC. Together Intel and Rockchip will be making chipsets for low-end Android tablets.