E-commerce giant Amazon could venture into the mobile chip arena,as it looks set to acquire the mobile chip arm of semiconductor firm Texas Instruments.
Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet,released in the UK this month,is powered by a processor made by Texas Instruments.
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Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist said the deal could be worth billions of dollars.It would mean that the firm could compete with consumer giants Apple and Samsung–who also design their own chips–along with mobile chip makers Intel and Qualcomm.
Texas Instruments,which is based in Dallas,Texas plans to shift its wireless investment focus from smartphones to a broader market such as industrial systems in order to boost profits,according to Reuters.
This led analysts to believe that it could be ready to move away from its mobile application business;however,the firm said it would still support existing customers,just not to the same extent as it had previously.
If Amazon does acquire Texas Instruments'mobile chip arm,it could further support the view that the vendor is looking to achieve end-to-end integration from its hardware,including its Kindle Fire,through to its online retail store and its EC2 servers and infrastructure-as-a-service(IaaS)platform.