NetbookTech

ABI Research is out with some interesting predictions for the new smartbook category. According to Jeff Orr, senior analyst with the group, an estimated 163 million smartbook units will ship worldwide in 2015 – a significant uptick for a category that just recently launched.

So what’s ABI Research’s notion of a smartbook? Here are their exact words:

“As ABI Research defines it, a smartbook is a low-powered device running a mobile operating system that is always connected, either via Wi-Fi or (more often) using cellular or mobile broadband. Smartbooks can take many different shapes. They are a subset of MIDs (mobile Internet devices) and netbooks, and address the same potential users, usage, pricing, and market needs. The difference is that they don’t use x86 processors.”

Products fitting the bill include processors from Qualcomm, Freescale, TI, and NVIDIA. Oh yes, ABI Research also includes the recently announced Apple iPad as a smartbook thanks to the custom-built Apple processor presumably based around an ARM core processor.

And the keys to the ultimate success of smartbooks? Price naturally. The research firm believes entry-level smartbooks need to be priced $200 dollars or less.

So what do you say folks? Would you consider getting a smartbook if it was less than $200 dollars? In addition, would you be ok with a system that didn’t run Windows but some Linux-based derivative? Curious to hear what all of you think here.

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Lenovo confirmed on Thursday that the company will be announced their first “smartbook” product at CES 2010 in January. According to PC Magazine, the device will be sold by AT&T, presumably as part of a mobile broadband subsidized package. No further details on the system were provided by either Lenovo or AT&T.

“Smartbook” systems utilize Qualcomm’s ARM-based Snapdragon processor and come with a non-Windows OS – typically Linux. A spokewoman for Lenovo was quoted as saying in an email:

"Lenovo is developing a smartbook based on Snapdragon, which we expect to announce at CES… Unfortunately, there are no further details at this point.”

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Tim Bajarin of PC Magazine has published an excellent article covering the smartbook device concept being pushed by Qualcomm and its telecomm partners.

While netbooks are best seen as small, inexpensive, secondary notebooks, smartbooks are being marketed as instant-on, always-connected devices – providing users with quick and easy access to applications and content on the net.

More importantly, smartbooks will include from the get-go embedded 3G modems – making these devices ideal targets of mobile carriers. As the smartphone market begins to saturate, mobile carriers are looking for new devices to bundle mobile broadband service. We’ve seen this with netbook models and you can be sure the carriers are salivating at the thought of smartbooks.

The real question is – will a consumer opt for a smartbook device running a non-x86 processor and a non-Windows OS? Only time will tell ..

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