Intel CEO Paul Otellini, speaking at a Barclays Capital technology conference, said the company has some major wins for its upcoming low-power processors and expects 35 vendors to announce smartphones with them in 2011’s second half. It is competing against ARM-designed chips from chip makers like Qualcomm and Marvell.
Intel has two Atom-based platforms, Oak Trail and Moorestown. Oak Trail is for Windows 7. Moorestown is for tablets with Android and MeeGo, which it is developing in a joint effort with Nokia. Intel had originally said tablets with its new Atom processors would start shipping in early 2011.
‘You will see smartphones from premier-branded vendors in the marketplace in the second half of 2011 with Intel silicon inside them,’ Otellini said. The market is a marathon, not a sprint, he said. A slide he showed listed Dell, Asus, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba. This will be Intel’s second effort with a chip for smartphones.
Microsoft has said it’s counting on new Intel processors which use less power to help it make Windows 7 a major player in the tablet market. Tablets will be an additive to the computing market, he said, but compete with netbooks for consumers’ discretionary income.
Otellini said Intel already has 35 tablet wins, no doubt including the HP Windows 7-based Slate for the corporate market, and expects consumer tablets with its chips to be available in the first half of 2011. One unanswered question is whether all or most of the 35 wins are for Windows 7 tablets and whether any run Android, or, by some miracle, Apple’s iOS.
Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer promised there’d be lots of Windows 7 tablets for the holiday shopping season. It’s December 9, and so far none have appeared in the retail stores. Maybe they’ll debut in January at CES.