Intel seeks Android-on-Atom MID deal with Google?
Daft not to
Intel is wooing Google to port the Android operating system to Atom, according to noises coming out of Taiwan.
The claim comes from Taiwanese makers of handheld internet tablets - what Intel calls Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Atom is Intel's smallest and lowest processor family, designed for MIDs.
Intel has long been keen to persuade OS developers to support its processors. In part it wants to stop being seen as solely interested in Microsoft Windows - as it once was, when 'Wintel' was a common way to describe PCs.
Intel has cosied up to Linux developers for a long time, and recently began pushing Moblin, its own open source OS optimised for MIDs and netbooks. Moblin development continues apace, but Intel has never said the distro commands all its Linux loyalties.
This is one reason for the recent news that it is working with Nokia to align Moblin with the Finnish phone firm's Maemo, the Linux distro that ships with Nokia's internet tablets.
And hence Intel interest in Android and - no doubt - Google's upcoming Chrome OS too. Google says Chrome is for netbooks, Android for smartphones, but we imagine Intel wants to get both running on Atom chips, no matter what devices those processors end up in. ®
COMMENTS
Does anyone really NEED a MID/Netbook?
Running a full copy of Windows on a device that will likely never be used for much more than surfing the internet seems silly. I think Android or Chrome would be well suited to this task but not any more so than what Linux is already currently offering. In the end choice is good but unless people understand what those choices stand for they will not be capable of making them. While I have always been interested in the MID I think it missed its chance to catch on when smartphones got so good. Take your average netbook for example; it does nothing that a decent smartphone doesn’t already do and most of it the smart phone actually does better. The only people who buy netbooks are people who thought they were buying a real laptop because they couldn’t tell the difference except for size. They keep trying to find a home for these niche products and I think they are too late because the modern smart phone has pretty much already taken it. What we need here is Atom powered smartphones running full x86 code. Not another device already doing what a smart phone does just on a slightly larger screen. IMHO of course but that is the way I see it. I am not the least bit interested in a netbook or a MID because in the end I would just be doing the same things I already do on my smartphone.
Now Google's a playa
I noticed Chrome OS was for x86 and ARM. Time for the progeny of the BBC to own the world !!!!
Smash the Atom
ARM?
Also, I thought Android had already been run on some x86 netbooks?
