Intel Corp unveiled new processors for portable devices yesterday, joining the trend to allow users to access the Internet through hand-held gadgets.

The new products extend the world's biggest chip maker's dominance in desktop and laptop processors, but mobile Internet devices (MID) need more time to become commercially mature, industry insiders said.

Intel launched five processors called Intel Atom and Centrino Atom, which are designed for handset-sized devices with PC-like capabilities such as Internet access, navigation, high-definition video, and touch screens.

Manufacturers including Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology Co (which produces the aigo brand), BenQ, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG and NEC have decided to introduce MID products by the second quarter of this year. They demonstrated the new chips at the Spring 2008 Intel Developer Forum, which was held in Shanghai yesterday.

Users can access the Internet through Wi-Fi or telecommunications networks like CDMA (code division multiple access) and TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous CDMA), according to officials of Huaqi and BenQ.

The companies showed a 4.8-inch touch-screen MID model with a webcam and GPS functions.

Mobile partners

Intel is also talking with mobile network operators including China Mobile and China Unicom, according to Anand Chandrasekher, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the firm's ultra-mobile group.

"Intel and partners will show how small devices can deliver a big Internet experience," Chandrasekher said during the forum yesterday.

Demand is growing for ultra-mobile Internet services, either from improved handsets or ultra-mobile PCs, according to Gartner Inc, a United States-based IT research firm. Generally speaking, PCs have the advantage as people want to use the Internet services they are familiar with, it said.

Intel and the manufacturers declined to reveal the price of the MIDs.

But an industry source said the hardware cost will be about 4,000 yuan (US$563), excluding license fees for Windows or other software, which is double the price of ASUS' Eee PC.

"People require portable Internet devices but they don't want to pay more for multimedia and entertainment on the small screen," the source said on condition of anonymity.

Ultra-mobile devices will become Acer's third pillar of revenue but won't contribute much until 2009 or 2010, according to Gianfranco Lanci, the president of Acer, the world's third-largest maker of personal computers.

(Shanghai Daily April 3, 2008)