Reports are coming in from Korea that Intel and LG are teaming to deliver a new Intel-based Android smartphone at CES 2012. Is it true? If so, are there channel implications? Here’s the scoop.
Tip of the hat goes to 9to5Google for aggregating the reports. According to the report …
“Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini will release Intel’s first Android smartphone using our own platform at the CES,’’ said Intel Korea chief Lee Hee-sung to The Korean Times on Friday.
Neither Intel nor LG have confirmed or denied the rumors, despite the quote being published. The rumored device is supposed to have Intel’s Medfield system-on-a-chip device, the same chip Intel has ‘shopped’ around for the last month.
As 9to5Google correctly points out, this isn’t the first time LG and Intel have collaborated. In 2011, an LG/Intel-based Android smartphone crashed and burned, thanks to its lack of “marketability.”
LG has built a lot of sexy-looking devices, so its lack of marketability may have been Intel’s lack of edge in mobile CPUs. This time around, however, Intel might be on the right track: The sexy prototype device featuring the new Medfield SOC is something that even I, an avid Apple fan, would love to get my hands on for a review.
As far as the channel, such a device would be yet another confirmation of proliferation of mobile devices, but it’s also an affirmation that Intel is making a big push into the mobile space this year. Intel’s bread and butter is CPUs, and as mobile devices have become more powerful, desktop devices become less necessary. Intel won’t let ARM eat its lunch without a fight.
Expect 2012 to have some incredibly interesting statistics in the mobile CPU arena. Those facts and figures can be incredibly important for picking and deploying a mobile solution that works in both the SMB and corporate environment. Even though it seems like just consumer electronics, it’s really the shape of future of things to come.
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How will battery life and cost compare to ARM?
I suspect, not very well.
Lawrence: You certainly cut right to the chase with that comment. The VAR Guy will keep the points in mind…
-TVG
Lawrence,
I’m just as wary as you are about Intel’s mobile CPUs, but I’m willing to give them a chance. I think we need a little competition on that scene. ARM has pretty much dominated it forever.
-Dave
Leaving aside the fact that the whole ARM ecosystem itself is a hotbed of competition, I would say the real non-ARM competition is going to come from MIPS.
ARM and MIPS are the two processor architectures big enough to make x86 look like a niche. Sure, they are low-margin businesses as well as being high-volume, but history has not been kind to high-margin, relatively-low-volume vendors (like Intel) trying to break into such markets.
Lawrence: Did The VAR Guy mention that he had a MIPS/Windows NT system back in the 1990s? It sat right next to his Alpha/NT system…
-TVG