Google’s head of Android, Andy Rubin, made what can only be described as a most awkward appearance at Intel’s Developer Forum in San Francisco today, during CEO Paul Otellini’s keynote.
After drudging up the dregs from a four year old DreamWork’s partnership, marauding McAfee’s Candace Worley on stage and saying “compute continuum” over 20 times, Otellini obviously felt the need to finish strong, though Rubin failed to pack the hoped for punch.
Citing a “new partnership with Android,” Otellini handed over to Rubin, who stood speechless for several seconds looking dazed and confused as the crowd coughed.
“I guess I just missed my cue,” he quipped once he’d seemingly recovered.
The awkwardness continued however, as Otellini attempted to prompt Rubin into expressing his excitement for what amounts to a continuation of a basic Intel/Google partnership.
“The partnership has been great, we’ve optimized a lot of our products for Intel architecture,” said Rubin, avoiding the Android issue.
“This is the continuation of a strategic alliance,” he said, again seemingly trying to dodge the bullet a second time.
With some more prodding from Otellini, however, Rubin finally conceded “We’re going to work very closely with Intel to make sure Android is as optimized as it possibly can be for Intel architecture.”
As optimized as it possibly can be. Encouraging.
Rubin finally brought the uncomfortable stage show to a close by intoning that he was “Very excited to be here and very excited to be working closely with colleagues and engineers from Intel.”
Otellini then thrust a mysterious prototype of an Intel Medfield platform smartphone at him, which Rubin clutched self-consciously aloft before handing it back and rushing offstage.
The prototype, said Otellini, was already being made available as a reference design to Intel partners, with Intel chip based phones purportedly on-track to enter the market in the vague time frame of 1H12.
