Intel may be getting closer to offering up a smartphone that will run on one of its processors. News.com reports that a Korean-based web site claims that LG will use CES 2012 as the place to announce a new smartphone that will have Intel inside.
The News.com story points out that Intel and LG actually showed off a smartphone prototype with an Intel processor inside at CES 2010. However, that prototype, which used a Linux variant as an operating system, was never released as a commercial product. Intel is getting more serious about having its processors inside smartphones, especially since other ARM-based products from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and others have a virtual monopoly on the smartphone processor market.
Earlier this month, Intel showed off yet another prototype of an smartphone with its chip inside to select members of the media, along with a Android-powered tablet. Intel plans to offer a version of its Atom processor, code named Medfield, as the basis for its smartphone and tablet chip. The company now says that the first smartphone products with its processors will be released in the first half of 2012. Hopefully they mean it this time and it won"t disappear like the CES 2010 demo product.