Intel might get into the mobile market

CHIPMAKER Intel might be fed up with waiting for its partners make an Ipad or Iphone killer.

Looking at the outfit's hiring press releases lately a name jumped out at us.

Former Palm and Apple VP Mike Bell has been appointed as VP and director of Intel's smartphone product development.

Bell is described as a "seasoned technology veteran", which means that he has been liberally doused with the seven herbs and spices that are sprinkled into Apple's Iphone gadget.

He was also part of the executive management team at Palm from 2007, where he was SVP of product development. At Palm, it was Bell who was behind the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones.

The fact that Intel has a smartphone development arm is fairly interesting because there has been a distinct lack of product coming from it.

Intel has said in the past that it was looking to its partners to come up with ways of taking on the Apple tablet and phone marketing machine.

Perhaps the fact that Apple has dropped the ball on the Iphone Flaw means that Chipzilla has seen a chance and hired the man to do it.

To do this it needs a lot more expertise than it currently has, even with Bell at the helm. But his appointment is a move in an interesting direction. µ