On this morning’s NewsDesk program I spoke with show host Kristin Feledy regarding Huawei and their $90 million dollar R&D investment in Helsinki, Finland.  The center will be focusing on software research and development for smartphones and tablets with a particular task of further developing the customer user experience on Android and Windows Phone 8.

The move to Helsinki is an opportunistic play in Nokia’s home territory as it takes advantage of a pool of talent and resources that emerge from the advanced education atmosphere.  Design and engineering are two hallmarks of production from the region and we should expect no less than further evolution and refinement in anything that is developed in this part of the world.

We also discussed Intel’s progress on their systems-on-a-chip (SoC) development.  The company is building a 22 nanometer processor offering for mass manufacture in 2013.  Intel has been a bit slow to the mobile game, getting beat by ARM technology in a number of spaces.

A number of elements have led to this, including price, production, licensing to say the least, but it very well could be that in order for Intel to compete, they will have to rethink some of their business or emerge with something so far ahead they can keep things intact.  The bottom line is Intel has nothing near the almost-monopoly it once enjoyed and they have to make some very critical strategic moves in the development to market of this new line.

The task is not easy as there are plenty of competitors in the mobile processor space and there are challenges in manufacturing this form factor.  However Intel has a lot of experience, and plenty of R&D in the tank to deliver on manufacturing development.  It is critical for them to deliver the product on schedule,  find market, and meet the market and run that line profitably against a variety of competitors.