Intel, Nokia to partner for new mobile chips, platform

Intel and Nokia have partnered to develop chipsets for mobile devices and will work to develop a new mobile platform.

Intel has licensed Nokia's HSPA/3G modem IP for future projects, Nokia said.

At a press conference yesterday, neither company would give details or timelines of specific products, but said they would develop new Intel-based mobile device and chipset architectures.

They said they would build a platform that combined the features of “smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile internet services.”

Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher said the collaboration would deliver “open and standards-based technologies, which history shows drive rapid innovation, adoption and consumer choice.”

The companies will also coordinate their open source technology development units, and will jointly develop solutions for Linux-based platforms Moblin and Maemo. The solutions will use open source technologies such as Mozilla, Tracker, oFono and ConnMan.

Rethink Wireless analyst Caroline Gabriel expects the new mobile platform to “[sit] between a smartphone and a netbook, possibly drawing on its existing Internet Tablet range, but adding a 3G connection.”

The move appears to represent a change of strategy at Nokia, Gabriel said. “In leveraging its role of kingmaker, Nokia seems determined to maintain a balance of power in the mobile chip industry, reversing its old reliance on a single, heavily controlled partner,” she said.