Intel signs multi-year pacts with Motorola and Lenovo for mobile processors

Announcing multi-year pacts with Motorola Mobility and Lenovo to develop smartphones and tablets, Intel said the first Google Android phones using its processors would go on sale this year.

Lenovo's K800 is set to launch in China in the second quarter this year, while Motorola would gain regulatory approval in the summer and launch in the following months across Europe and America.

The announcements come as the first significant bid by Intel to challenge the smartphone dominance of British company ARM, whose chips power many of the world's most popular phones.

Intel hopes the rapid expansion of the mobile market would complement its new laptops and other devices.

According to Intel chief executive, Paul Ottelini, the relationship with Lenovo was ''just the beginning.'' He also announced ''Intel reference designs'' for phones and tablets. These also emphasise improved battery life, even while keeping standard features such as a camera of up to 16MP and rapid web browsing and graphics capabilities.

According to one Intel spokesman, the Android products were ''fully buzzword compliant'' and existing software would not need to be rewritten for the new devices, which it also demonstrated were capable of taking 10 pictures in less than a second. It hopes manufacturers would use them to build new devices of their own.