Smartbooks To Go Against Netbooks?

photo courtesy of gizmodo

There seems to be another contender to netbooks aside from tablets. Smartbooks, which are basically what you get if a netbook and a smartphone had babies, are looking to be the next big thing this 2010. Basically what they offer is the longer battery life and always-on connectivity of smartphones married to the easier typing and bigger screen of a netbook. Most of these will be running an alternative OS to Windows, possibly something like Android or another mobile OS.

Actual offerings of smartbooks are pretty sparse in the retail shelves but ARM Korea thinks this will soon change in Q1 of 2010. Like some deals a few carriers are offering for netbooks currently these smartbooks will be sold bundled with a broadband package at a subsidized price, maybe even free.

I see how network providers are more willing to jump into this deal. A smartbook offers more chances to use up mobile services since they are always connected unlike netbooks. It also means they can offer more software services to these customers, kind of like having an App Store of your own for your subscribers.

Undoubtedly though, people will still think a smartbook that looks like a laptop should act like one and might be severely disappointed that it doesn’t perform like one. I’m thinking netbook manufacturers just need to tweak their existing devices to be always on since most of them have the battery life for all-day computing anyway and the newer models already have 3G built-in. Maybe a mode that kicks in when the computer goes to sleep or shuts down that keeps a low-power 3G connection for email and such running in the background, ready to hop into action once the user is ready to use it once more.

via liliputing