Intel joins efforts with Motorola and Lenovo to develop smartphones and tablets

Intel announced multi-year pacts with Motorola Mobility and Lenovo to develop smartphones and tablets, and said the first Google Android phones using the top chipmaker's processors would go on sale this year. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said Lenovo would launch a smartphone for the Chinese market using Intel's newest chip in the second quarter of the year, while Motorola will release its phone in the second half, says Reuters.

The agreements with the American and Chinese consumer electronics companies help shore up Intel's boldest foray into the mobile arena. The company is hoping the new "Medfield" chip will be light enough in power demands to compete with rival smartphones using ARM Holdings' more energy-efficient architecture. While traditional PC sales have seen slowing growth, those of smartphones and tablets have been rocketing. PC sales in 2011 barely grew year-on-year, while those of smartphones were expected to have risen by about 50% to outpace PC sales by numbers. And smartphone sales are expected to grow 32% in 2012, according to analysts IHS Suppli, while PC microprocessor growth is still expected to be only a few percent, informs The Guardian.

Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, made several product announcements, including its partnership with Lenovo, which will begin selling phones equipped with Intel's new Atom processors for China's Unicom network in the second quarter of 2012. Otellini also announced a multiyear, multidevice agreement with Illinois-based Motorola to equip that company's smartphones. The Intel keynote closed out the first day of a packed CES, which the Consumer Electronics Association owners announced is bigger than initially projected, according to Las Vegas Sun.