Posts Tagged ‘Smartbook’

Smartphone and Netbook, meet Smartbook (but haven't we met before?)

Netbook or Smartbook?

Netbook or Smartbook?

On the day that Intel secured the right from Psion to legally use the trademarked term Netbook, rival chip designer Qualcomm is pushing a “new” category of mobile device, which the company is calling a Smartbook. As a marketing term, like the Netbook before it, the Smartbook definitely has legs. It’s new, catchy and yet derivative enough of existing product categories so as not to scare off consumers.  But beyond marketing, what exactly separates a Smartbook from a Netbook and other ultra-mobile laptops before it?

Here’s Qualcomm’s own definition:

Smartbooks are a new class of devices running mobile operating systems that bridge the functional divide between smartphones and laptops, delivering the best aspects of a smartphone experience on a larger-display form factor. Constantly connected via 3G, Wi-Fi  and GPS , smartbooks are ultra-portable, personalizable, easy-to-use and last all day on a single battery charge.

In other words a Smartbook is similar to a Netbook, except it runs a mobile operating system rather than a conventional desktop OS, such as Windows or one of the various desktop flavors of Linux.

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