Intel Announces Ultrabook, Demos Honeycomb Android Tablet at Computex
As competitors like ARM and NVIDIA aim for the smartphone sweet spot, Intel is still aggressively protecting their traditional PC market share. They see huge opportunities in the mobile realm but at Computex the company announced a more directly related product line: Ultrabooks. The company trademarked the name and expects a huge percentage of the notebook market to be made of these ultra portable, ultra thin devices by the end of 2012.
Will the “Ultrabook” name stick in any way? Traditional laptops and notebooks were recently joined by netbooks, followed by a short period where smartbooks were the popular preference. Of course Apple has their Macbooks of which the Macbook Air is the Ultrabook equivalent and Google now has Chromebooks on the way.
However, it wasn’t Chrome OS running on an Ultrabook that excited us about Intel’s Computex appearance, it was their showing of “Medfield”- their phone and tablet platform that was seen running Android 3 with promises of products hitting the market in the first half of 2012. We haven’t seen video footage as of yet, but we’re eager for Intel to enter the field as they’re virtually a non-factor on the current mobile landscape. Whether or not Ultrabooks will incorporate Android or Chrome OS is anybody’s guess, but we’re happy to see Intel picking up the pace in their diversification efforts.
[Via Guardian]