Intel says smartphone and tablet hardware will run Android 4.0 next year

In an attempt to win back its place in the mobile market, Intel is hyping up its upcoming hardware designs with some Android flair. According to PC World, Intel-based smartphones and tablets running Android will be ready for next year. A version of Ice Cream Sandwich for the upcoming Atom Medfield system-on-a-chip is already at the production stage.

Intel is no stranger to the mobile market, though ARM and Qualcomm have been dominating it as of late. The chip maker hopes that x86 versions of Android will help revive its presence in the mobile space, allowing it to expand to the low-power netbook, tablet and smartphone markets. According to Intel, the first smartphones using its designs will hit the market in the first half of 2012. Intel has been working with Googlebehind closed doors on Gingerbread and Honeycomb products, none of which have made it past the experimental stage thus far.

Manufacturers already have pretty wide array of system-on-a-chip choices, though it’s all dominated by ARM’s underlying architecture. If Intel can extend its sizable presence into the mobile world with x86 and ARM-based products, it’ll be in a good position to stay healthy when the first ARM-based Windows 8 machines begin to surface, reportedly in 2013. Being part of two of the fastest-growing segments of the technology industry wouldn’t hurt, either.