Otellini Focuses On Ultrabooks And Smartphones

By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 1/10/2012

Las Vegas - Intel CEO Paul Otellini used his International CES keynote to give a broad overview of Intel's latest projects.

The majority of the talk centered on Intel's flagship project, the Ultrabook. Otellini took the audience through the Ultrabook's capabilities and gave a peek at some upcoming changes that will be built into the device. This includes adding touchscreen capability, better security, and design changes that will have the clamshell design convert into a tablet.

The big news of the keynote was Dell's introduction of the XPS 13 Ultrabook. Jeff Clarke, Dell's global operations VP, showed off the new device, saying the 13-inch model fits into the same footprint as one with an 11-inch screen and is essentially capable of delivering the same type of always-on-and-ready experience of a smartphone, but in a mobile computing platform.

Pricing was not announced, but it will be ready for orders in February, Clarke said.

Intel also brought out pop star Will.i.am who is now conducting a 12-city, worldwide tour to promote Ultrabooks and help with several philanthropic projects.

Otellini discussed Intel's work in the smartphone space and brought out two collaborators, Motorola Mobility and Lenovo, each of which will roll out an Intel-based smartphone in the coming months.

Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said his company and Intel have entered into a multiyear agreement to develop phones, the first of which will be available by late summer.

Lenovo's Liu Jun, mobile Internet and digital home group senior VP, showed off the K800 smartphone, which will hit the Chinese domestic market during the second quarter. A U.S. release date was not announced.

Otellini participated in a demo that showed off the capabilities of the Intel smartphone reference design, which gives vendors the ability to come out with a phone and simply add their own unique features. The basic phone design uses the Android OS and has an 8-megapixel camera, 1080p video, six hours of video play, eight hours of talk time and 14 hours of life on standby.

There was also a brief overview of a tablet reference design that uses the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.