However, other analysts said the Intel-Google partnership on smartphones has a subtle meaning built of on earlier partnerships between the two on data centers and Google TV.

Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said Google needs Intel more than the other way around. "Google needs a more mature, down-to-earth partner to get Google to provide rock solid, fully baked products," Gold said. "Google hasn't always been too good at that."

Intel and Google do seem to be an "odd couple," partly because Intel is so much older and traditional than Google, Gold said, although such partnerships sometimes make sense.

Gold said Google will need Intel's assistance in building future versions of Android, which will progress well beyond today's smartphones and tablets.

Intel will be most valuable to Google as a software innovator, not a chip maker, Gold added. Intel has thousands of software engineers who have been making operating systems, not just Windows, run well for years.