Intel admitted delays in its smartphone product push, noting that a product targeting this sector (codenamed Medfield) which was widely expected to be available this year will not now reach the market until 2012. Speaking at its annual shareholder meeting, Paul Otellini (pictured), CEO of the chip giant, said that “you’ll see the first Intel-based phones in the market the first part of next year,” including devices from “major players” from the outset. While the smartphone market has seen impressive growth in recent years, Intel has been unable to capitalise on this, with the market instead dominated by rivals such as Qualcomm, using low-power architectures from ARM. Otellini said that while Intel has an ARM licence, it does not intend using this to develop handset processors. It was noted that in the tablet market, Intel is “on track,” and that the tablet race is “nowhere near finished.”

Candidly, Otellini also said that “in hindsight, Nokia was the wrong partner to have picked” to spearhead its smartphone projects. While Intel and Nokia had been working to deliver high-end products to market powered by the fledgling MeeGo platform, in February 2011 the Finnish handset giant instead switched its support to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform.  In the meantime, Intel has taken on MeeGo “almost exclusively,” with the focus of delivering form factor and reference designs, and it is now looking to bring in new partners. It was previously reported that LG Electronics may be looking to deliver smartphones using the OS.