Intel, in a surprising move, announced on Monday that it was looking beyond Windows 8 and towards bringing Android support to tablets running on Intel’s Clover Trail Chips. This would add another OS option to the anticipated processor platform other than Microsoft’s Windows 8, which is still yet to hit the market.
Intel for long maintained that its Atom Chip code named Clover Trail had been optimized for Microsoft’s Windows 8, which is set to release this late October. Since then HP, Acer and Lenovo had announced Windows 8 tablets running on Clover Trail, with over 20 different designs in the making.
But with Intel’s new announcement, tablet makers can now pre-install Android OS on their Clover Trail tablets, or even offer tablets that have dual-boot systems which have both Windows 8 and Android OS.
Intel’s spokeswoman made the following statement in email: “Intel has plans for another version of this platform directed at Linux/Android; however we are not commenting on the platform specifics or market segments at this time. Stay tuned. “
Intel and Microsoft collaborated closely to optimize Clover Trail Chips for Windows 8, which comes with a touch user-interface. Windows 8 boasts of features that would enable to receive email and push notifications even in sleep mode, much like a smartphone. It also comes with a good number of power-saving features, which boost battery life.
Though there have been tablets on demonstration running Windows 8, there have been none running on Android. Intel would probably have to work on some driver software which would ensure Android OS would work on the Chip.
In an earlier statement, however, Intel said it planned to keep Clover Trail dedicated to Windows 8, and that it was not actively porting Android to work on tablets that ran on Clover Trail Chips. Instead it would work on the development of Android on its Atom based smart phone chip code-named Medfield, which would power some tablets too. Motorola is expected to release a smartphone based on Medfield sometime next week.
Intel hopes that Clover Trail and Windows 8 would help it gain some sort of foothold in the tablet market, which is currently dominated by ARM processors. Microsoft would also be running Windows RT with ARM processors. Intel also announced that it had ported Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to smartphones. Many smartphones with ARM processors also run on Android OS.
