Craig Barrett, the former chief executive officer and chairman of Intel Corp., said at a press conference that the results of the recently signed strategic agreement between Intel and Nokia would only become obvious in the following years. This once again confirms that neither of the companies is likely to benefit from the agreement in the short term future.

“We will have to wait a few years to see if the deal is successful,” said Craig Barrett at a press conference, reports Reuters news-agency.

In late June Intel and Nokia signed an agreement that will enable Intel to license Nokia's HSPA/3G modem technologies with the aim of developing “advanced mobile computing solutions that deliver a powerful and flexible computing experience”. Even though the companies did not provide details or peculiarities, it is highly likely that by “powerful computing” Intel considers its Atom platforms. Potentially, this allows Intel to build-in Nokia’s baseband technologies into its next-gen system-on-chips powered by Atom technology.

The effort also includes technology development and cooperation in several open source software initiatives in order to develop common technologies for use in the Moblin and Maemo platform projects, which will deliver Linux-based operating systems for these future mobile computing devices.

But the most important thing is that Intel and Nokia will together define a new mobile platform beyond today's smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile Internet services. For Intel it means that it can sell its x86 processors on the market of ultra-mobile devices, the market that has been commanded by ARM processors for many years.

Mr. Barrett served as the chairman of Intel and was one of those who defined the company’s long-term future until May, 2009. Most probably, Mr. Barrett knows exactly what Intel and Nokia pact is all about.

Tags: Intel, Nokia, Atom