Intel Hauls Out First Android Tablet

Sept. 14, 2011 - PRLog -- Intel released its first tablet pc running on Android with an upcoming Atom chip "Medfield". The two executives also chatted about their relationship with Google at the company's developer conference today.

The Medfield Atom chip is one of Intel's most power-efficient chip which is designed under a strict requirement for tablets and smartphones. It contains a single processing core--as opposed to more power-hungry dual-core Atom chips used in Netbooks--and will be available in devices in the first half of 2012.

Intel-based tablets and smartphones will be targeted at Google's Android software instead of Intel's internal MeeGo operating system. MeeGo OS has been relegated to automotive and industrial applications mostly and is no longer seen as a promising operating system for consumer devices. To drive this point home, Intel reaffirmed its relationship with Google today.

According to Mike Bell, co-general manager of the phone division, the reaffirmation of the relationship is about "optimizing Intel for the Android platform for phone and for tablets," and “as a [device maker] you'll be able to go out and build a device with the full blessing and backing of Intel and Google."

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Intel has done an about-face of sorts. Its phone efforts had focused heavily on Nokia until that company made a dramatic switch to Microsoft's Windows phone platform. "We were very focused on Nokia. Mike and I took over in April and got the company very focused on the Android ecosystem," said Dave Whalen, the other co-manager of the phone division.

So when will Intel-based phones be available? "So, you'll see phones in the marketplace in the first half of 2012. It will be [Android] Gingerbread then transitioning to Ice Cream Sandwich at the appropriate time," said Whalen. Both Bell and Whalen admit that Intel has some catching up to do with consumer devices already out there using Honeycomb (tablets) and Gingerbread (phones).

It seems Android is really eating up the market, right? Everyone is trying to catch up with it or using it. Maybe someday there would be an android laptop or PC, I really want to see whether android would defeat windows or not.