Chip Wars of 2024: Will a Cell Phone Take the Laptop Crown?

As industry leaders in chip manufacturing vie for supremacy, there’s mounting speculation that the capabilities of smartphones might soon rival the traditional dominance of laptops.

AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm are all focused on creating a technology that will make Apple’s M3 chip look outdated while fully embracing AI and increasing battery life.

Rumors suggest that even Nvidia is pursuing an Arm-based solution. This motivation was part of the reason for its failed attempt to buy Arm, which has since gone public.

RISC-V is in the wings, and as Arm struggles with its licensing model, that platform is looking ever more attractive, yet it hasn’t emerged as a threat to PCs.

Adding another twist to the narrative, OpenAI’s ChatGPT is exploring the development of a neural processing unit (NPU) that could supplant GPUs for high-performance large language models, such as generative AI and the like.

This activity will take place mostly late in 2024, suggesting there will be a battle royale. Yet, behind the scenes, companies are discovering that smartphones increasingly may be able to make laptops redundant.

So, the winner in 2024 will need to defend against the rise of smartphones, which would favor Qualcomm and Lenovo. Apple will resist this because it wants people to buy both products.

Let’s talk about the laptop chip wars of 2024 this week, and we’ll close with my Product of the Week, an affordable, high-end, 4K touchscreen and graphics monitor from Wacom.