During the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Tuesday, Google’s Android head Andy Rubin took the stage with Intel CEO Paul Otellini and announced that future versions of Google’s Android operating system will be optimized to support Intel’s Atom processors. Intel has been glaringly absent from the smartphone space, which has been dominated by NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. “By optimizing the Android platform for Intel architecture, we bring a powerful new capability to market that will accelerate more industry adoption and choice, and bring exciting new products to market that harness the combined potential of Intel technology and the Android platform,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “Combining Android with Intel’s low power smartphone roadmap opens up more opportunity for innovation and choice,” said Andy Rubin. Otellini confirmed in May that Intel’s first Medfield-powered smartphones would hit the market next year. Read on for the full press release from Intel.
Intel and Google to Optimize Android Platform for Intel Architecture
Santa Clara and Mountain View, Calif., Sept. 13, 2011 – Intel Corporation and Google Inc. today announced that they will work to enable and optimize future versions of Android™ for Intel’s family of low power Atom™ processors. This means that future versions of the Android platform will support Intel technology in addition to other architectures.
The joint effort is designed to speed time-to-market of Intel technology-based smartphones running the Android platform. Intel will take advantage of the open-source accessibility of the Android platform to provide its customers with technology products that inspire continued innovation and also help enable powerful personal computing experiences that fully leverage Intel technology across a range of devices. This work will enable mobile device OEMs and wireless operators to draw upon the performance and low power capabilities of Intel® architecture and tap into the scale of the x86 developer ecosystem to further drive the adoption of the Android platform.
“By optimizing the Android platform for Intel architecture, we bring a powerful new capability to market that will accelerate more industry adoption and choice, and bring exciting new products to market that harness the combined potential of Intel technology and the Android platform,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini.”Together we are accelerating Intel architecture and bringing new levels of innovation to a maturing Android platform.”
“Combining Android with Intel’s low power smartphone roadmap opens up more opportunity for innovation and choice,” said Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google. “This collaboration will drive the Android ecosystem forward.
Today’s announcement builds upon the two companies’ recent joint initiatives to enable Intel architecture on Google products, which include Chrome OS and Google TV along with the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) and Native Development Kit (NDK).
