SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. chip maker Intel, which doesn't have much presence in the mobile market, says it is close to a deal to provide LTE chips for some Samsung Galaxy S5 phones.
The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker is in negotiations with the South Korean phone maker to provide the chips for one of the variations of the Galaxy S5 that should be on the market in the coming months, an Intel spokesman told CNET.
The chips would not go into the flagship Galaxy S5 unveiled Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Intel explained but a slightly different model expected to be announced as a follow-up, Intel said.
Samsung has traditionally followed up a flagship device with additional variations that are lower cost with slightly reduced feature sets, seen as the likely destination for the Intel chips.
While the flagship S5 will use Qualcomm chips, Samsung will likely use Intel's wireless chip in certain follow-up devices that use its own Exynos applications processor.
The deal with Samsung would be a significant one for Intel, which dominates the market for PC and server chips but has struggled to make any headway in the mobile arena almost exclusively served by Qualcomm chips from its rival ARM Holdings.
"The interest in LTE is high," Hermann Eul, head of Intel's mobile chip business, said. "Everybody wants an alternative [to Qualcomm]."
