Intel x Nokia

Didn’t see this one coming.  But then again, Intel the world’s biggest chipslinger was always looking to make a major push into the mobile arena.  In a press release titled “Intel and Nokia Announce Strategic Relationship to Shape the Next Era of Mobile Computing Innovation” (read it here), Intel outlines their plans to move forward with Nokia to work on the future of mobile computing and translate the two corporations joint research into action.  Intel also announces that they will license Nokia’s HSPA/3G modem technologies.  This was an excellent scoop on Intels part and will also allow Nokia to leverage their existing technologies in more strategic ways.

Kai Öistämö (Executive Vice President of Devices at Nokia) says…

“We will explore new ideas in designs, materials and displays that will go far beyond devices and services on the market today. This collaboration will be compelling not only for our companies, but also for our industries, our partners and, of course, for consumers.”

This isn’t a partnership that we will see immediate products and technolgies from, but in the long term this collaboration will pay dividends.  Another major aspect of this teamup is the collaboration on open source software and coordinating their open source investments.  This includes moblin and maemo.  Although symbian wasn’t explicitly mentioned, I’m personally hoping to see Intel contribute to that project as well.

So what does this mean for the future devices that will be hitting the streets?  I would definitely expect to see a wider array of chips in Nokia phones.  Possibly even faster and more specialized processors in their smartphone lines and most definitely a Nokia tablet with an Intel processor in it.

Read the press release at Nokia here.

Photos in photo by stefan, james nash, and somewhat frank.