Intel recently launched their new Haswell processors and although the adoption has been slow, Intel South Africa’s Mohammed Fareed says that consumers will start to see more of them in technology devices such as the cameras in laptops, notebooks and mobile devices.
“How many products are there on the market using Haswell? Only one, but as they come out, you will start seeing more 3D cameras coming out. Cameras are no longer on a circular mount, as they are either two cameras or a camera with depth perception. Every OEM with Haswell will have one. The next step will now be the application and we are working on it,” he said during a briefing at this year’s rAge Expo in Johannesburg.
He added that the next big step for Intel in Africa is to further develop applications that are compatible with Intel chipsets. “The tablet and phones have been out for a while and as adoption takes off, you’ll see more products and compatibility. In Africa, we are ramping up our software group so that they can work with partners to development apps for Intel products. What you’ll start to see in tablets, will be dual boot into Android and Windows.”
Device manufacturer ASUS makes use of Intel chips and while their mobile devices and tablets haven’t gained much traction in Africa, the company will be taking an active stance to promote their new devices.
“Asus is in talks with MTN and Vodacom to bring Intel products to the market such as the PhonePad, but smaller companies like Nashua have been selling them. The PhonePad 2 will be pushed harder into the market in South Africa and we are promoting it more as a tablet, and then calling is just a bonus,” an ASUS representative said.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
