Will Intel Work for Apple?

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), the PC chip market leader, may be a little bit closer to getting involved in the rapidly growing mobile chip market.

PC sales have been declining, which has left Intel in a difficult position. Meanwhile, smartphone sales have been growing, but Intel hasn’t been able to make a dent in that market yet. Intel’s chip-manufacturing technology may be years ahead of competitors such as Samsung (SSNLF.PK) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM), but its designs are more suited for larger devices that are often constantly powered, not for low power-consumption mobile gadgets running on small batteries.

Intel’s absence — it has less than 1 percent market share for smartphones — has allowed Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Samsung, and others to make significant headway in the arena. There’s a drastic difference between the smartphone situation and Intel’s 80 percent market share in the PC chip market.

That may be close to changing. Rumors are going around that Intel may have a big name client in the works. Intel and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) have had a long relationship in the traditional computer and laptop markets, but the iPhone maker has its own processors for its iPhone and iPad devices.

Apple’s mobile processors have long been manufactured by Samsung. However, with competition growing fiercer between those two, it may be wise for Apple to move its manufacturing somewhere else. Intel might just be that place…