14 DAY TRIAL // If there's one thing most Android tablets have in common, it's the fact that they're not built on an Intel platform, and the chip manufacturing giant is apparently not at all happy with this situation, planning to turn it around as soon as possible.
So, according to a report by Digitimes, it seems that Intel has decided to tackle this serious problem head-on, and consequently, turned to several of the best-known Taiwan-based portable computing systems' manufacturers, such as Inventec and Compal.
Apparently, 6 to 8 of the world's best-known notebook manufacturers have been officially invited by Intel to participate in their initiative, and, according to a source close to the matter quoted by Digitimes, it seems that the chip manufacturer is expecting the first prototype products to be showcased as soon as the next Intel Developer Forum (IDF), set to take place in Beijing, in April 2011.
Of course, should the respective companies prove not to be able to finalize their R&D efforts until April, there's still plenty of time remaining until Computex 2011, when such prototypes will almost certainly be displayed by at least a couple of the companies that have agreed to take part in Intel's initiative.
It's already quite clear that Intel has a very serious uphill battle to fight in the tablet field, simply because ARM, Qualcomm and Samsung have managed to establish a very serious foothold here, their processors (in the first case, mostly found within the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform) powering the vast majority of new tablets being released onto the market.
However, Intel certainly has the will power (not to mention the R&D, as well as financial resources) to engage in this serious competition, but it remains to be seen whether they'll manage to achieve the level of market success they crave for or not.