Probably the world’s biggest and obviously the most well-known chip maker, Intel, has officially taken the plunge into the smartphone market. Last year Intel hinted towards making a grand appearance into the smartphone market. Almost nine months later the Silicon Valley giant has officially confirmed what we all expected.
Intel’s Medfield x86 Atom SoC chipsets have finally made their way on board approximately six smartphones. Unfortunately none of which are making it to the shores of the US. If this hasn’t upset you, then maybe the fact that the Medfield chips are not going to support 4G LTE, will. At least for the moment these first generation chips are only single core processors, but Intel has included support for their famous Hyper threading technology, making for a better multitasking experience.
Intel has stated that they have future plans to support 4G LTE in future releases. But for right now this is probably the main reason that the major smartphone manufacturers are staying away from the first generating of chips, particularly for US handsets. With 4G LTE now a major selling point for consumers and US carriers alike (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon), we probably won’t see any Intel powered phones stateside until at least 2013.
Those of you interested in getting your hands on one of the first Intel powered smartphone, you have a few choices. The Lenovo K800 is heading to China. Megafon’s Mint is a Russian carrier-branded phone. The UK will be getting the Orange San Diego and the most well-known, Motorola’s RAZR I will be making its way to parts of Europe and South America.
Source: Techcrunch