In either case the progress of technology has to be factored and while both stand to need more improvements they are finally reaching the ready point.  Medfield can be compared to how Nvidia got into the Market with the Tegra, the first attempt never really went anywhere (like Moorestown) while the second took a year to take off and finally the 3rd is starting to be compared to the top contenders.

Mind Intel is leveraging some things that aren’t standard yet like hardware accelerated encoding of media.  So not only can it play blu-ray quality video but it can record or edit video too.  While Intel’s deal with Google helps ensure better compatibility with Android than it could have hoped for before.

Also we’re only a year or so before they improve the technology even more.  So like the difference from the Tegra 2 to the Tegra 3, we’re likely to see a similar jump in the jump from Medfield and what Intel has lined up to replace it next.

Anyway, you really should check the reviews of the actual product before declaring it not ready.  They may have to stick in a slightly larger battery but aside from being a little thicker they are close enough in power efficiency to be comparable to present competition. 

It’s just the next gen ARM chips that are coming out later in the year that will outshine Medfield but like I said, Intel’s turn to update is only a year away and they could turn the tables with higher performance and of course Windows 8 may still run better on x86 hardware.

If they release something that is not ready, consumers will shun it. Look at the playbook, perfect example. I wasn’t saying to stay in their one market, just to use their power and influence to steal iPads dominance with Win8 and tablets, then go to phones, once they have better knowledge for power consumption and battery tech gets a bit better.

It’s not like the old days when all people want to do is call each other and text.  People want their phones to do more and more these days and that’s where Intel can actually compete with ARM by providing more performance.

ARM is by design intended for low end usage but just like Intel is having problems lowering their power usage, ARM is having problems increasing its performance. 

ARM has issues like all ARM chips are still 32bit, they’re still years away from even sample 64bit devices. So things like memory management are things Intel would have an advantage for providing performance.

While a normal strength of ARM for ease of customizing also leads to it’s weakness by causing much more hardware fragmentation than Intel would have to deal with to provide consistent performance.

Really, there’s no more reason for Intel to not get into the mobile market as there is for ARM not getting into the laptop and similar markets.

Already we’re seeing ARM applied to the server market and we’re going to see a lot more set top usages like for Google TV, etc.

You really think Intel is just going to stick to its own dominant market and not expand as well just as the technology is finally coming that will finally make it practical for them to do so?

Like it or not ARM and Intel are finally going to start to compete and the history of both won’t matter as both are evolving their technology and fully intend to expand into devices that neither have traditionally been used for and even new devices like the growing car computer market, among other examples.