This week Motorola unveiled its first smartphone powered by an Intel chip, a move it is hoping will help it stand out from an increasingly crowded market and re-establish its status as inventor of the mobile phone, writes CIARA O'BRIEN

THIS WEEK marked a milestone for mobile firm Motorola Mobility. The Google-owned company unveiled its first smartphone powered by an Intel chip, a phone it is hoping will help it stand out from an increasingly crowded market.

It might be a fact that gets lost among the hype of phone launches, but it was Motorola that invented the mobile phone. But much has changed since then.

Apple and Samsung are fighting it out for the top spot in the global smartphone market. Google and Apple are going head to head with each other in a war of the platforms. And Nokia has opted to do a deal with Microsoft, ditching the Symbian system that originally made it so popular.

The Razr i is not only Motorola’s first Intel powered phone, it’s the first handset that contains a 2Ghz Intel processor.

The Razr i is the result of a multi-year, multi-device agreement between Motorola Mobility and Intel, a collaboration that was announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The end result is a 2Ghz Atom chip inside Motorola’s new handset, allowing the handset to work speedily at everyday tasks such as switching between apps or operating the camera.

It’s made of aircraft grade aluminium, with a DuPont Kevlar back, with a Gorilla Glass screen. Durable yet lightweight, and according to Motorola, the materials don’t interfere with reception.

Motorola said its research had already delivered positive response for the Razr i, so it is quietly confident that the phone will strike a chord with consumers.

“We believe this is going to be a real success for us,” Motorola’s vice president Andrew Morley said. “We are very literally pushing design to the edge.”

Morley was referring to the phone’s 4.3-inch edge to edge screen, which means Motorola can cram in more screen space while keeping the handset more compact than its rivals.

It’s not all about the screen size however; Motorola has also improved the device’s battery, which will get about 20 hours of mixed usage from a full charge, and it’s been coated with a compound that makes the phone splash-proof.

Tuesday’s event was marked with inevitable iPhone comparisons – the new handset has 15 per cent more screen space than the newly announced iPhone 5, which goes on sale in Ireland on September 28th, and 40 per cent more power than the iPhone 4S. But Morley was keen to get away from comparisons with the iconic Apple phone.

“For us it’s more about the consumer. If we can get something the consumer prefers over and above all the competition, we’ll be successful,” he said. “This is something that we want the consumer to love. So if they love it, we don’t care what Samsung or Apple do.”

But there is one area where Motorola has to pay close attention to Apple. The mobile maker has had some well documented tussles with Apple in the courts in the past few months, with the most recent one ending in a win for Apple in Germany.

But despite the ruling, Motorola isn’t concerned that it will have any impact on the launch of the newest Razr, with Germany listed among the first wave of countries that will get the Razr in October.

“The good news is that we invented the mobile phone,” said Morley. “So it means when you look at patents, the original inventor typically has a very strong position.

“We are very keen to vigorously defend all our patents. Right now we don’t see any reason not to launch in the markets we presented. We’re confident that this device uses our patents.”

Irish users will have to wait another few weeks until they see the Razr i in store. There is no release date for the phone here as yet, but it is expected to hit the shelves some time before Christmas, with November a likely date.

In recent years, Motorola hasn’t done much in Ireland. But that appears to be about to change. Earlier in 2012, the Motorola Defy was made available through Irish networks, and Morley said there are plans for a major push in Ireland for the Razr i.

“For us Ireland is a very important market,” he said, citing the fact that the Irish market tends to be known for early adopters. “The fact that Intel and Google are based in Ireland is not an accident.”

The Motorola deal is an equally important one for Intel, which has fallen behind in the smartphone and tablet market, and is keen to make its mark in the rapidly expanding industry.

“This is an important milestone in a long journey,” said Graham Palmer, Intel’s UK and Ireland country manager. “We’ve continued to invest in research and development and manufacturing, to allow us to continue to bring higher and higher quality processors to the market whilst also making them more and more power efficient.

Palmer described the deal with the handset maker as a “winning combination”. “We’re used to working in competitive markets,” he said.

“We’re absolutely convinced that we can continue to innovate in the future as we have done in the past, which allows us to bring this amazing technology you see in the Razr.

“Strategically, we’ve said taking our technology into handheld devices is a critically important opportunity for Intel,” Palmer said.

“The flip side of that is the more smartphones are connected to the internet, it also drives huge data centre build-out as well, so it’s great at the back end for us as well.

The past few months have seen some changes for Motorola. The mobile firm was bought by Google in 2011, a move that Morley said has brought new focus to Motorola.

Google has an absolute focus on the consumer,” he said. “That’s a big strength of Intel as well. With Intel and Google both involved in this, it’s been a consumer build of a smartphone.

“For us it’s a very different way of building a device. That’s why we think we’ve ended up with what we’ve got, because it’s consumer first and the technology comes after.”

But the test of the new phone will come when users get their hands on it next month, in what is sure to be a closely watched launch for both firms.

INTEL INSIDE CHIPMAKER TARGETS SMARTPHONE MARKET

Intel may not have made much of an impact on the smartphone market to date, but it is pinning its hopes on tackling the sector for the future.

Although Intel remains top of the pile in the PC sector, the chip maker has been outshone in the fast growing smartphone and tablet sector by rival ARM, which licences its technology to Qualcomm and Samsung.

Intel has struggled to adapt its products for the sector, which demands chips that have lower power requirements for devices where battery life is an issue.

But that may be about to change. At its developer forum in San Francisco last week, Intel unveiled its latest chip, the fourth generation of its Intel Core processors built on the Haswell architecture.

And there is a line of low-powered chips designed with mobility in mind, which means that less drain on battery life.

Intel is hoping that Haswell will encourage more innovation is the sector, including the design of tablets.

Unveiling the new chips, Intel said it would set a new standard for mobile computing and “innovative Ultrabook, convertible and tablet designs”.

Intel’s David Perlmutter said the low-powered processors would “usher in an era of unprecedented innovation in mobile computing”.

It will be next year before we see any of the Haswell devices on the market. But Intel gave a flavour of what it feels the future holds, demonstrating voice and gesture recognition for hybrid tablets – devices with removable keyboards – and Ultrabooks.

Also on the horizon is Clover Trail, the next-generation of Intel Atom processors and a system-on-chip designed for the upcoming Windows 8 operating system based on Intel’s 32nm technology.

While it wasn’t immediately clear if the new chip design would support alternative platforms such as Android or Linux, it has since been reported that it will.

Intel needs to make a solid move to gain some footing in the market. Although the chips are still used in about 80 per cent of the world’s PCs, Intel needs to diversify its product markets.

Tightened budgets mean businesses are investing in fewer PCs. Consumer are turning to new categories of devices instead of traditional computing. While the company has created a new category of devices with Ultrabooks powered by its Ivy Bridge processors, the premium devices also command a high price.

Last week, Intel reduced its revenue estimates for the third quarter as demand for its chips fell. According to a new report from iSuppli, Intel’s share of the processor market for PC, smartphones and tablets will fall to 29 per cent from 35 per cent over the next four years.

CIARA O’BRIEN