I was very intrigued by this story in PCWorld. The nub:
Intel is porting the Android 4.1 operating system, also called Jelly Bean, to work on smartphones and tablets using low-power Atom processors, the company said this week.
Not necessarily the port itself, but the possibility that they’ll go further. It seems like Android right now is used primarily for phones, tablets and appliances (like the Nexus Q), but I’m curious if a port to Atom is an early signal of things to come – perhaps the possibility of using Android as a desktop/laptop OS?
Oddly enough, while there would be, I think, a few obstacles, I can certainly picture Android starting to eat Window’s lunch, particularly with form factors like the Asus Transformer Infinity with a handy detachable keyboard. In fact, I’ve been starting to think whether it can replace my current Windows 7 tablet. It can’t. At least not all it’s functionality. But I can imagine that on the horizon. And I can certainly imagine that more clearly than I can Chromium OS or Chromebooks replacing Windows. Who buys those things anyway?
But who knows. I suppose this whole Windows 8 everywhere strategy is not just to try to grab a slice of the mobile/tablet market, but also, I’d assume as a defensive measure of sorts. Hmmm.
