Taiwanese publication DigiTimes reports that Intel is set to announce “a new plan for tablet PCs,” marrying its Atom processors with the Android 3.0 platform, after “nearly half a year of negotiations with Google.” It was also said that Intel is prepared to pay a subsidy of US$10 per device to vendors offering tablets using its processors, in order to make its proposition more appealing to top-tier manufacturers. The solution is apparently called PRC Plus, and is also intended to “improve on the operating system’s user interface and user experience.” Earlier this week, Intel announced availability of its latest Atom family products, previously codenamed Oak Trail, which targets netbook and tablet devices and is expected to be used in devices from May 2011.

Intel is facing tough competition in the tablet market, with Qualcomm having gained significant traction with its Snapdragon products, and a number of other vendors also actively targeting this space. Atom, which is based on Intel’s x86 architecture, competes with silicon based on a design from ARM Holdings, which is widely perceived as being well suited to power and size constrained devices such as smartphones and tablets. ARM-based chips are also believed to be priced more competitively, which may be why Intel is now considering subsidies in order to attract device makers. Intel’s attempts to build its strength in Android tablets could be seen as a blow to its own MeeGo activities, with this platform perceived to be well suited to such terminals. Following Nokia’s decision earlier this year to sideline MeeGo, momentum for this platform appears to be dropping off somewhat. However, ultimately Intel is a processor vendor, and it is in its interest to support as many platforms as possible, in order to boost its potential shipment volumes.