HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung to Launch Quad-Core Smartphones in 2012

Nvidia has just taken the wraps off its Tegra 3 quad-core application processor, which promises impressive performance capabilities for mobile devices that would range from tablet PCs to high-end smartphones.

Actually sporting five cores, since Nvidia also counts the GPU as an additional core for the chip, Kal-El is expected to make it inside smartphones no later than next year, after being packed inside tablet PCs before the end of 2011.

The first device to include the application processor was already made official, the ASUS Transformer Prime, and should be followed by many other similar products, it seems.

Among them, we should see smartphones coming from handset vendors such as HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung, some of the latest reports on the matter suggest.

HTC, for example, has been recently rumored to pack the quad-core chip inside a new smartphone, dubbed Edge, which should also arrive on shelves with a large 4.7-inch screen, advanced connectivity capabilities, an 8-megapixel camera on the back, and other cutting-edge technologies.

The smartphone might make an official appearance on the market as soon as the first quarter of the next year, and could be released in early Q2 2012 at the latest.

Apparently, phone makers like LG, Motorola and Samsung plan on making similar steps in the are soon, in an attempt to prevent HTC from stepping to far ahead, DigiTimes notes in a recent article.

All these handset vendors are confirmed to have already started the work on quad-core smartphones, with info on HTC's Edge available at the moment, following previous rumors on two Motorola handsets, Bullet and Jet.

All these devices are expected to run under Google's Android operating system, and they might very well pack the latest flavor of the OS, namely Ice Cream Sandwich.

However, we should expect Nvidia's chip to be packed inside devices running under other OSes as well, including Microsoft's Windows (Phone) or RIM's BlackBerry.