Nokia and Intel tout a fluffy future

Big Linux news in the fine print

INTEL LOVES NOKIA and Nokia loves Intel, you know that because they announced it in a joint conference call. There was little of substance, vague future prognostications, and two real bits to chew on.

The prognostications were all about working together for future devices that go far beyond the capabilities of current devices. They will let you leap tall buildings in a single bound, and help your wash come out with whiter whites and brighter colors. You know, the usual making the world a better place stuff, but nothing about kittens being cute. It is all wrapped up in x86 architecture though, and Atoms are cute, right?

On the real announcements side, we have the the one minor and one major announcement. The minor one is that Intel licensed HSPA/3G tech from Nokia, meaning you might just see 3G + 4G modem/PCIe cards from them soon. This basically allows Intel to be a white box phone vendor, so Taiwanese ODMs can crank out plastic cases for Intel phone mobos (phobos?) all day long.

The more significant one is a Maemo and Moblin hookup. Why? Because those are two of the three leading mobile Linux platforms, Android being the third. Moblin can already run most if not all Android apps, so clarifying the relationship with Maemo basically makes a comprehensive Linux phone platform for applications.

With MS falling on it’s face in the mobile world, that leaves three, Apple, RIM and Linux. Until today, the Linux side was attacked as fragmented, but as you can see, that fragmentation is falling away fast. If nothing more happens on the fluffy future side of things, this announcement is significant enough to be a potential game changer.S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate