Intel’s Next Generation of MIDs Looking More and More iPhone Like

Last week  after Intel’s Ultra Moblie session at Computex, I attended a intimate Q+A session with Intel’s senior vice president of Intel’s ultra mobility group Anand Chandrasekher about Intel’s Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).  (If you are interested in seeing parts of the session you can watch the video below shot by our friend JKKMobile.) Chandrasekher held his BlackBerry Curve during the duration of the meeting and interestingly placed on the back of the phone was an Intel Atom sticker. Now, that phone absolutely didn’t have an Intel Atom processor (of any family) inside it (we are not in the business of starting rumors!), but the smartphone was a symbol of where Intel is clearly heading with its next generation Moorestown platform for MIDs. One of the prototype devices that was shown at the event last week was strikingly similar to the iPhone in size and shape. Pictured above, the dummy unit didn’t work but represents that Intel’s Moorestown is going to find itself not only in UMPC like devices, but also in high-end smartphones (or mediaphones, as some are calling them) and more generally in a whole range of small form factor internet-connected devices. Expected to hit the market by 2010, a few important changes to the platform will make Moorestown smartphone-friendly. While Moorsetown is even smaller than the current Menlow platform, it will also be able to provide smartphone like battery life (at least 24 hours of runtime). Intel announced that devices will idle with 50x less power drain than today’s Intel MIDs. But what will finally make these devices all-in-one devices is their voice capability. Given the Moorsetown platform’s improved performance when compared to ARM based phones and devices and its ability to handle HD content and multi-tasking, our bearish tune on MIDs could be changing soon.