The “technology collaboration” announced today between Intel and Nokia was a non-event.
On the call earlier today, both companies executives including Intel ultra-mobile guru Anand Chandrasekher who refused to talk about specific products, saying it was too premature, and only referring to some future “new class of devices.”
Furthermore, Nokia’s devices chief Kai Oistamo reiterated that the Intel deal “has no impact on our long-term relationship with ARM suppliers.” So why bother really?
Nokia and Intel to combine mobile Linux systems
But what we know however is that this “new class of devices” will run a Linux mobile operating system – probably a combination of Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin – on top of a low-power Atom chip coming up next year.
“A new class of devices” that sounds very much like a netbook or a Mobile Internet Device (MID) in Intel’s lingo, to me!
Even Intel’s decision to license Nokia’s 3G data modem technology for its chips sounded like old news. Last month Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini said in an analyst briefing that Nokia’s modem technology will be used in Moblin.
So why so much noise, for so little or actually no news? Probably to remind people that unlike ARM-based competitors like Freescale, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung or Texas Instruments, Intel does not have a low-power enough chip for the “ultra-mobility” space yet!
