TI says it's not giving up on OMAP chipsets, OMAP 5 on track

Texas Instruments is revamping its strategy regarding its OMAP chipsets and announced that it considers the smartphone and tablet market less attractive and will focus on bringing OMAP to more platforms than wireless gadgets.

Reuters, citing various analysts, reported that it's quite likely that TI will be quitting the smartphone and tablet business altogether. Today, a TI media relations manager contacted us to clarify the company's position.

It will indeed be broadening the reach of its OMAP products, aiming at "embedded applications such as automotive, industrial, enterprise communication, vision and robotics, to grow the OMAP footprint beyond mobile".

TI will also continue its efforts in developing the OMAP chipsets and the fifth generation, the one with Cortex-A15 cores, is on track - it's sampling today and the first consumer products it will power are expected in early 2013.

The statement coming from TI's media relations manager felt a little evasive when it comes to future smartphones and tablets powered by TI OMAP. The company is under a lot of pressure since Qualcomm lures in clients with its integrated LTE modems and the two biggest makers - Apple and Samsung - are making their own chips.

Still, there's an OMAP 4 inside tablets from both Amazon and Barnes&Noble, plus OMAP 5 will be the first with Cortex-A15 cores, which should give the platform a boost.

It remains to be seen how many smartphones and tablets will be launched with TI OMAP chips and how well the company's foray into new territories will work. For what it's worth, we hope they do good as competition always drives innovation.