Intel and Chinese Internet company Tencent will work together at a joint innovation center to develop products and services around Intel’s MeeGo mobile OS and devices based on Atom processors.
The companies said while Intel will contribute in hardware and operating systems, Tencent will provide its expertise in services.
Tencent and Intel said at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing that sixty engineers have already started work in the new joint innovation centre in Shanghai and the number could go up to 200.
Intel software and services group general manager Renee James said, "We are very happy with the progress we have made."
"It’s from this desire working with Tencent we are forming the center around MeeGo and Atom-based devices."
This week, Intel launched its Oak Trail chips aimed at the tablet devices market.
Intel’s chips are in 80% of laptops and desktop PCs, but the mobile market is dominated by processors from companies such as Qualcomm, ARM and Texas Instruments which consume less power than normal processors. Apple designs its own chip for the iPad.
Intel has admitted that it is behind competition in the tablet chips market, and hopes that with the new range of Oak Trail chips it can gain more market share in the growing tablet business.
In a related development, Intel is reportedly planning to open a new research and development (R&D) centre in Finland, expected to hire around 200 engineers.
An Intel spokeswoman said the company has started hiring hardware and software engineers.
This comes at a time when Nokia has said that it will announce large job cuts, expected to be as high as 5,000, at the end of April.
In the past, Intel and Nokia have worked together on developing the MeeGo software platform for mobile devices. However, Nokia walked out of the partnership in February this year after signing a software partnership with Microsoft.
