Intel and Nokia Announce Technology Partnership, but No Smartphones or Netbooks

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) announced a long-term technology partnership on a range of devices beyond today’s smartphones, netbooks and notebooks to mobile Internet devices that executives say they have “yet to imagine,” but those executives stopped short of actually announcing any of those devices or when they might be delivered.

“We’ll talk about products when we are ready to talk about products, but that’s not for today’s discussion,” says Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of  Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group.

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Rather, Intel and Nokia’s announcement encompassed more of a future vision than any current product, in spite of repeated questions from press and analysts. The companies say the relationship will develop a new class of Intel Architecture-based mobile computing devices and chip-set architectures. The goal is to bring the full rich Internet to mobile “pocketable” Internet devices. And that’s as specific as Intel and Nokia would get.

The partnership will include development of hardware, software and mobile Internet services, and will draw on each company’s area of expertise. Intel and Nokia officials say the software collaboration will draw on several open-source mobile Linux software projects, including Moblin and Maemo.

Intel will also license the Nokia HSPA/3G modem technology, saying the goal is to develop advanced mobile computing solutions.

Nokia says that its collaboration with Intel will have no effect on its partnerships with providers of ARM processors.

Intel’s announcement June 22 of a press conference featuring its senior vice president of mobility sparked wide speculation that Intel would finally see its Atom processor, widely used in netbooks, incorporated in a smartphone. Intel made no such announcement.