It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the mobile space is blowing up, both in terms of smartphones and tablets, and that we’re just at the very beginning of an epic transition to pocket computing. That’s all fine and dandy if you’re Qualcomm and make chips that go into those devices, or Samsung, or Texas Instruments, or ST-Ericsson, all of which have one thing in common: ARM. Unlike Intel, who designs and makes their own processors, ARM licenses out their blueprints and even instruction set so that others can build system on chip (SoC) solutions custom tailored to what customers need. It’s not that Intel has been ignoring the mobile space though. They’ve been trying to shrink their chips down for years, making them draw less power, so that one day, maybe not too far away, you’ll be able to buying something with a similar size and shape to the smartphone you have now, but with a full blown x86 processor inside.
Rumors out of Taiwan are suggesting that Intel is talking with notebook vendors and are asking them to make tablets. Said tablets would be running Google’s Honeycomb operating system. There are a few problems with this. First, is Google maintaining a branch of Android that will run on x86 chips and provide full compatibility with the thousands of applications already available in the Android Market? Second, can Intel deliver chips in volume to vendors that not only provide general purpose processing, but also video encode/decode and cellular access? Third, why would a notebook vendor, who is already barely getting by thanks to ridiculously thin margins, enter a new product category that uses an unproven chip solution in an attempt to compete with the iPad?
We’re not saying Intel is stupid, we’re just tired of hearing their promises of a smartphone/tablet with an x86 chip inside. It’s a promise they’ve been making roughly every 6 months for the past 2 or 3 years.
[Tablet pictured above is running MeeGo]