Intel CEO: First Medfield smartphone launching this week

Earnings calls are usually a humdrum affair with a lot of boring numbers being thrown around. Sure, sometimes the numbers are higher or lower than expected, but only rarely do these calls make news. Intel’s just completed Q1 earnings call is one of the odd ones, though. According to CEO Paul Otellini, the first Intel-based Android phone is launching this week.

Otellini failed to mention which phone would be launching, but it is unlikely that Motorola would let Intel blow its launch. The other OEM that has signed on to make phones with Intel’s chips is Lenovo, and the K800 might be able to slide in under the radar right up until launch. The K800 is supposed to debut in China, and was called out as the first Intel-based phone back at CES.

Intel’s Medfield chip was shown off at CES 2012, and the company said at the time that devices would be out later in the Spring, but this is the first solid word on a date. The K800 will run on the 1.6GHz Atom Z2460 (codename Medfield), and has a 4.5-inch 720p screen.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the very first Medfield device appeared in China first. If there are issues with the platform, this would give Intel an opportunity to patch things up before larger OEMs like Motorola get involved. While Android itself has been optimized for Intel’s x86 architecture, not all apps will play nice. Apps using native code will have to be translated in real time by the system, and that may not work as expected.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Intel’s single-core part stacks up against dual and quad-core ARM chips already at work in existing Android phones.

View orginal artical here- Intel