Intel is always looking for new stuff to put Atom in, as it’s proven so effective in netbooks — sorry, not netbooks — lappytops, maybe? In any case, they’re proposing a “media phone” that uses an Atom processor and is essentially a more powerful MID that replaces your home phone. There’s still room for a shared media hub in the home, they think, and they want it to be this thing.

Now, my brilliant and misleading illustration above compares it to an iPhone, mainly because that’s an easy size comparator for most people, but it should be noted that this isn’t meant to be a mobile phone. It’s like a highly-connected touchscreen nettop that’s dedicated to communication and media collecting. It’s got USB ports, HDMI out, and a whole host of stuff the function of which I dare not guess.

It sounds to me like they’re onto something but they need to pare it down. If this is to be a shared device replacing a really simple communications hub (the landline and answering machine), they’re going to need it to be a lot more limited if they expect people to pick it up. They’re planning on running Moblin on it, which, since it’s in-house, may be customizable enough that they can do that.