Civic-Roger

In an effort to carve out a niche in the burgeoning mobile market, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) has partnered with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to optimize future versions of the latter's Android mobile operating system for Intel's Atom line of chips.

The announcement was made by Andy Rubin, Android head honcho and Google senior vice president, on Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum, which runs in San Francisco through Thursday.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini, whose dream has been to push into the mobile arena, said the first Intel-powered Android smartphone will enter the market in early 2012.

Otellini also demonstrated an Intel-powered tablet at IDF on Tuesday.

Although Intel focused on smartphones during its announcement, the team-up with Google will also "support our tablet business," Intel spokesperson Claudine Mangano told TechNewsWorld.

The tablet demoed at IDF is a "form factor reference design" based on Intel's 32nm Medfield Atom chip, Mangano said. It was running Android Honeycomb, she added.

"From a market dynamics perspective, Google is a must-have partner today," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told TechNewsWorld.

Focusing first on smartphones is a strategic move because "from a commercial perspective, Android-based phones, which as a group are outselling Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone handily, are a better short-term bet," King added.

Google did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Read more: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/hardware/73280.html