Intel's Medfield-based StudyBook tablet rumored to be aimed at emerging markets

Sure, Intel is a few years late to the smartphone and tablet game, but that doesn’t matter, right? I mean, this is Intel. Anyway, if recent stories are to serve as any indication, we shouldn’t count the mammoth company from Santa Clara out quite yet. Intel is aggressively pushing its Medfield chip as an alternative to ARM architectures, and really wants to make up for lost time. While w2e’ve previously reported on claims that Intel’s Medfield chip will make its way into a number of mid-range smartphones, up to this point, we’ve had no information on a possible Medfield tablet. Much to the delight of Intel fans worldwide, that’s about to change as a recent Digitimes report claims that Intel will soon start pushing a tablet reference design dubbed the Intel StudyBook.

According to the recent report, the Intel StudyBook tablet will launch as part of the Classmate PC family and will be priced at below $300. As it stands, the StudyBook is aimed at emerging tablet markets such as China and Brazil, although Intel supposedly has plans for a worldwide launch as well. Not much further is known regarding the specs, but rumor has it that the Medfield-based Intel StudyBook tablet will feature a 10-inch touchscreen as well as dual-boot functionality. Although it might be too early to tell, I’m really hoping that this will be the first Medfield tablet to run Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 OS as well as Google’s Android OS (just think about it: Windows 8 and Android on the same device would be the very definition of ‘best of both worlds’). Please note that while the Windows 8 – Medfield compatibility was not officially outlined, it is generally agreed upon that the Medfield chip should be able to run Windows 8, since it is an x86 processor.

Digitimes claims that the Intel StudyBook tablet will be manufactured by ECS and Malata, which seems quite probable given the fact that ECS already manufactures other devices in the Intel Classmate PC program. While there is no exact release date info, we do know that the Intel StudyBook is expected to hit the market in the second half of 2012.

Is a potential Medfield based tablet running on Windows 8 of any interest to you guys? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!