Can Intel make tablets and phones more like the PC?

The personal computer has been good to Intel. Ever since the original IBM PC the market has been dominated by what are known as x86 processors, and although it has always had rivals - AMD in particular, producing K6, Athlon and Phenom chips - Intel has always had a strong grip on the market for this technology. And when portables, laptops and then netbooks followed, they followed the PC's lead - the vast majority using Intel's x86 products.

But today there are new computers in town, and if anything they're more personal: smartphones and tablets. So very few of those devices have 'Intel Inside' - and the company's activities at this year's Computex trade show underline how much it has invested in changing that.

Today the company held a briefing on 'companion' devices - netbooks and tablets, showing a range of products using its Atom chip technology and stressing the versatility of its platform.

"We don't all want the same haircut, wardrobe or dog", said a flashy corporate video. "So why would we all want the same companion computing experience?".

A range of netbook, tablet and hybrid devices was then shown, all powered by variations on the Atom, with an emphasis on the fact that one physical Atom tablet or netbook can run one of many operating systems: Windows, obviously, but also Android, Google's Chrome OS and the Linux-based MeeGo.

Meanwhile out on the show floor there was evidence of all types, with everyone from big consumer names such as Asus to manufacturers whose products will be re-badged by shops showing Atom-based netbooks and tablets, some of which run two or more operating systems - Viewsonic's Viewpad 10 Pro could switch between Windows 7 and Android in just a second or two, for example. We even found - and crashed, admittedly - a prototype Atom-based car stereo.

But Intel's ambitions seem to reach even further. The line between smartphones and portable tablet computers seems increasingly blurry, and at today's conference it showed a prototype Android phone running on the company's upcoming Midfield chip - an Atom-based processor for phones.

Even with its deep pockets, manufacturing partners and enormous corporate clout, though, capturing the tablet and smartphone market is likely to prove tricky for Intel. It is, currently, playing catch-up, and the competition isn't standing still: Nvidia, for example, used Computex to preview its upcoming quad-core Tegra 3 chip, due in September, and its current Tegra and Tegra 2 processors can be found in many tablets and smartphones already on sale. This kind of system-on-a-chip, or SOC, has become the standard for touchscreen based portables in much the same way that x86 did for PCs: running popular operating systems, such as Android, on popular hardware.

It will also have to convince smartphone manufacturers used to working with rival ARM chips that the newer-to-mobile x86 is a better way forward, although the work Intel has done in partnership with Nokia makes us ponder whether an x86 handset could arrive via Finland in the future.

And, of course, Nokia is already working with another key Intel partner: Microsoft. Currently Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system works only with ARM or Snapdragon chips, but who knows: in future we could be seeing Windows on Intel processors in our pockets as well as on our desks.

You'll find all the latest news from Computex 2011 here.