Intel steps to MID market with LG devices

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona from February 16 to 19 a conjoint announcement was made by Intel and LG Electronics. The two companies stated that LG Electronics will use its latest generation technology to build a new class of mobile Internet device.

Intel and LG plan to team-work to develop the new devices with a new processor codenamed by Intel as Moorestown. These products will be also deploying a version of the Linux open-source operating system called Moblin. LG is said to be the first to release devices of the Moorestown design while the new Moorestown chips will be wide spread by 2010 as predicted by Intel.

The project of Intel and LG is to create a new class of mobile computers to allow customers to make phone calls using a wireless Internet connection. It is said to be something between a smartphone, like the Apple iPhone, and a Netbook, a scaled-down version of a notebook computer.

Intel is entering MID market as the slumping economy impacts heavily its PC processor business inasmuch as people no longer hunt for desktop computers. MID market is seen by Intel as an area with great prospects. Data released by IDC showed that while the overall cell phone market decreased 12.6% worldwide in Q4 smartphones were actually up about 22.5%.