Intel to sell to mobile market

Drive will be based around new chip due in 2009

Otellini: Phones are becoming like PCs

Intel's chief executive Paul Otellini has outlined plans for the chip maker to move into selling its products to the mobile phone market.

As mobile phones become more like PCs, Intel believes it can bring its expertise to bear in the sector.

"If you accept that the value proposition of the high end of the mobile phone market is full internet access that happens to have voice, my view is that it is easier to add voice to a small computer than vice versa," Otellini told the Financial Times in an interview.

The company hopes the new version of its low-power Atom microprocessor chip, due in late 2009 and aimed at smart phones, will facilitate the move and that PC and phone manufacturers will launch products based around the chips.