Otellini about phones and the iPhone

Otellini told the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco: "Virtually every computer and handset manufacturer on the planet is struggling to figure out how to compete with Apple."

This is twaddle of course, but that's what he said.

Otellini thinks phone makers will have to switch to more powerful yet energy-efficient processors to compete with Apple. And guess what? Intel's mobile chip firm Marvell is building some ultra low-power chippery that he thinks will do the job.

"If we get power and price down to the right point, I think it is a killer silicon compilation to these kinds of devices," Otellini said.

Apple has said that its phone will be running a special version of the OS X operating system that powers Mac systems. It may be powered by a Marvell Xscale processor.

"Where I see Linux as an opportunity is in ultra-mobile handsets. These things are much more inclined to be a Linux or a Unix derivative kind of product like OS X," said Otellini. "The power performance footprint in terms of the kernel for Linux for ultra-mobile is quite good as opposed to the footprint for Vista.