Two world giants of technology in two completely different arenas have teamed up to make newer and better smartphones. The companies are Intel and Nokia, and last Tuesday they announced their formation of a long-term partnership to put Intel microprocessors into Nokia smartphones.

Intel is acquiring an HSPA/3G IP license from Nokia and planning on putting a Linux-based OS into the devices, which will include not only smartphones but netbooks and nettops, and in-vehicle information and entertainment systems. This would be the big start in the mobile market that Intel has needed in order to remain relevant.

Though most smartphones these days use ARM microprocessors because Intel's apparently require so much more power, Intel's earlier forays into the mobile market included certain Blackberry and Palm devices. Nokia's real reason for the partnership, no doubt, is because of the bigger presence Intel will give it in the United States.

Known for years as the world’s best chip makers (a title that’s now in question), Intel has trained its efforts on a whole new arena. That’s right – smartphones!

Observing the massive success of the iPhone (and maybe even to get back at Steve Jobs and Co., maybe?) Intel revealed its own new platform (read: operating system or OS) for mobile internet devices (MIDs) and smartphones.

Of course, Intel’s interest in the arena probably has little to do with Apple’s success or its jilting of Intel’s flaghsip product. What it really has to do with is an awareness that handheld internet use is not only the wave of the future, but it still has so much room for growth.

Recognizing that no company has yet perfected the art of delivering versatile internet functionality in an optimal format, Intel has now demonstrated “Moorestown” to the technorati and announced plans to release the OS around the of ’09 or beginning of ’10.

Technology advances fast, and that's why today's experts see many amazing advances in smartphone technology in store for us in just two years from now. A chief Motorola executive summarizes it this way, by pointing out the three key trends that will alter the very "role and nature" of mobile devices to come:

• content digitization
• ubiquitous, global broadband
• PC miniaturization

This combination of elements will define what's to come in smartphone innovation in just a matter of 24 months or less, namely in the way of:

• hardware
• operating systems
• the internet "ecosystem"

Already, in the way of global broadband, companies like Verizon and Sprint have spread their 3G networks across the whole of the United States, with T-Mobile and AT&T not far behind.

In terms of sheer processing power and the placing of the computing power of the PC into your pants pocket, industry leader Intel is readying the new Moorestown chip, promising smartphone users even greater access to the power these increasingly faster networks offer.

And as for the world of the worldwide web, already corporate giants in other areas of technology are seeing the value of getting into the smartphone game. Consider web search giant Google, whose upcoming mobile platform Andriod is poised to revolutionize the smartphone market, engendering the creation of whole new smartphone devices by all the major manufacturers.

There's much more ahead for smartphone users, and not very far ahead at that. Stay tuned, because it's all coming soon to a smartphone near you.