Reports that the first Intel-powered smartphone will be the Lava Xolo X900 surprised a number of industry watchers. The surprise of industry watchers later turned to disbelief after a recent launch event held in New Delhi that confirmed the reports on the upcoming Intel-powered smartphone.
The first Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) processor designed for mobile devices is codename Medfield and has emerged in a number of reports following initial hints in 2010. The market is currently dominated by the ARM processor and with the release of the x86 processor will likely result to some changes in the market.
Even as the first Intel-powered smartphone may be welcomed by industry watchers since it will break the monopoly of the ARM architecture in the market, the smartphone itself does not appear to induce a similar reaction.
Lava is not quite known in the mobile phone market and is mainly known for selling low-end devices in the budget market. The lineup of the company does not show much of its expertise in the smartphone market. Due to this the fact that Lava is offering the first Intel-powered smartphone has surprised numerous industry watchers.
One of the reasons that industry watchers have indicated that Lava was selected to offer the first Intel-powered smartphone was the possibility that it gave Intel total control on the design of the Xolo X900. This would not be the same situation if the major smartphone manufacturers were contracted to produce the first Intel-powered smartphone.
Intel may have also decided to let Lava produce the first Intel-powered smartphone since it may have felt uncomfortable with its largest partner being too friendly with its competition. Intel is still starting out in the mobile market compared to ARM, which has dominated the market for some time already.
Speculations have also emerged that Lava may have made a good enough investment on research and development that it resulted to being offered contract of producing the first Intel-powered smartphone.
For the moment it remains uncertain why Intel decided to award Lava the contract of producing its first smartphone and only Intel or Lava can answer these questions that have emerged following the announcement of the first Intel-powered smartphone.
