IDF: Intel outlines developer tools for Android tablet integration

Intel has provided further details on its plans to bring optimised versions of Android to its mobile platforms, and will make a copy of the Android NDK for X86 available for developers and provide an emulator for the Honeycomb platform later this year.

The first commercial tablets based on the platform are slated to arrive in the first half of 2012, when the company hopes to have its developer community onboard.

Intel said that the X86 platform allows developers to achieve dramatically improved performance with NDK and for Android's Davlik Virtual Machine.

The tools will help developers take advantage of the recently announced partnership between Intel and Google, which has generated plenty of industry buzz but a note of caution from analysts. 

Margaret LeBrecque, Intel's tablet operating system segment manager, explained that the tools will be optimised to take advantage of the improved processing and graphics performance of Intel hardware and offer better memory management.

"Once you have all the Android libraries and operating systems you start off with 64MB RAM and have 10MB to work with," she said. "You have to be efficient with your memory."

Lawrence Chao, Intel's tablet marketing manager, said that the company expects the market to continue its expansion over the next five years, and that Android will become the top tablet operating system by 2016.

Consumerisation is helping to push sales, but Chao noted that specialised tablets are becoming more popular.

"In the enterprise we see mainstream IT people talking their tablets into work, but we also see a lot of specialised implementations," he said, referring to areas such as delivery and healthcare.