Intel execs promised the company would show off ten tablets with Intel Atom processors running Google Android at Computex, and it looks like the chip maker has followed through on that promise. Engadget spotted about a dozen Android tablets at the Intel booth at the Taiwanese trade show this week.
The good news is that as promised, the tablets all seem to be able to run Google Android 2.3 or Android 3.0.1. The bad news? They don’t necessarily run it well… at least not yet.
Engadget put together a hands-on video and while some of the tablets seem to feature decent 3D graphics performance and touchscren responsiveness, others seem painfully sluggish when performing simple tasks such as swiping left or right to switch virtual home screens.
Bear in mind, these are early prototypes that are getting handled by a lot of people on the trade show floor. The fact that some tablets are working better than others suggests that it’s perfectly possible for Android to run on Intel hardware, but it looks like Intel and/or the company’s hardware partners may have to do some work to optimize performance.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why would one want to run Android on an Intel Atom processor based tablet?  Is it contemplating a dual-boot  -with-Windows scenario or something?
Honestly, from a consumer perspective, I’m not sure there is a reason. I think Intel is trying to position its Oak Trail platform and other recent chips as alternatives for hardware makers. The company just doesn’t want to be left out of the Android tablet arms race.
On the other hand, I could certainly see consumers picking up relatively inexpensive Android tablets with x86 chips and seeing if they can manage to wipe Android and replace it with Ubuntu, OS, X, Windows, or another OS.
Dual booting is the likely scenario but also I would say pretty much the same reason to push systems with a linux distro. Since they’re free OS then that means the system can be sold a bit cheaper.
While like Brad suggested people can just put their own OS on the system, as x86 can run OS not made to run on ARM, and for those who are used to using Android already can have access to their favorite apps.