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As a German company defends the "Smartbook" trademark, its actions underscore what happens when companies gratuitously heap new category monikers on top of existing--and perfectly adequate--naming schemes.

Smartbook's Heaven Puro is, in fact, a Netbook.

(Credit: Smartbook)

Question: what do Netbooks and smartbooks have in common? Besides looking pretty much the same to consumers (small, lightweight clamshell laptops), both terms have been the object of legal wrangling by companies claiming trademark infringement.

First, the term Netbook came under attack from Psion Teklogix. That dispute with Intel was settled in June. Now Germany-based Smartbook is claiming that Qualcomm's use of the term smartbook infringes on the eponymous company's trademark. "Smartbook AG sets a high value on its protected trademarks, which are being used as company symbols and product marks for years," the company said in a statement sent to CNET.

The San Diego, Calif.-based cell phone chip giant had this to say in response: "Qualcomm is surprised by the claims being made by Smartbook AG...given that Qualcomm does not claim, and has never claimed, to own the term 'smartbook,' which it believes is a descriptive and generic term. The term is used by a number of companies, consumers, and industry commentators to describe a class of devices that combine attributes of smartphones and Netbooks that will be enabled by various technology companies, including Qualcomm."

Qualcomm has been promoting smartbooks for months on its Web site, and Freescale Semiconductor has been doing the same, though on a smaller scale. Both companies make, in effect, the silicon engines that power these devices.

And Qualcomm is now starting to crank up its promotion of the smartbook, as Lenovo prepares to roll out one of the first smartbooks at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

So the question arises: why call them smartbooks at all? Qualcomm believes that the devices it is promoting are different enough--as described above--from Netbooks that the moniker is warranted. But the reality is that by the time smartbooks hit the market in force (if they indeed do), there will be little really to set them apart from Netbooks.

For proof, look no further than the local Verizon or AT&T store. Verizon now carries Windows-Intel-based Netbooks from Hewlett-Packard with 3G modems built in. The sales pitch: connect to the Internet anywhere at 3G speeds--similar to what Qualcomm is preaching for smartbooks. Yes, smartbooks will have a different operating system (Android/Linux), but to consumers, this won't mean that they are different. At a Verizon store, it's just another Netbook.

And the Smartbook case is a microcosm of this whole problem. The German company offers a line of laptops that, in the United States, are called Netbooks. The systems promoted on its Web site offer the usual fare of Intel Atom processors and Windows software--except that the company calls them Smartbooks.

Confused? Well, the confusion may go away on its own when everyone just keeps it simple, calling a spade a spade: a Netbook is a Netbook is a Netbook.

The "smartbook" aspires to put the smartphone into the laptop. Will it be able to elevate an Apple iPhone or Motorola Droid-like experience to a larger device, or is it just more marketing mumbo-jumbo?

Two companies are hoping that the smartbook will turn out to be more than just another quickly-forgotten device sales pitch. Qualcomm and Freescale, which are both supplying key silicon technology for the devices, are pushing to make smartbooks different enough from laptops--and Netbooks--that consumers will take notice.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs holds the Lenovo smartbook, which will appear at CES in January.

(Credit: Qualcomm)

The first tangible evidence of smartbooks to come will be seen at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, where Lenovo, among others, is expected to show, if not roll out, smartbook designs.

One pesky question won't go away, however. Why go out of the way to call it a smartbook? Doesn't Netbook suffice? (And it can potentially be very confusing for consumers since both terms have "book" in them.) On one level, the nomenclature choice is simply to counter the Microsoft-Intel Netbook juggernaut: Another Netbook among dozens already on the market won't draw much attention.

But at a deeper level, the two companies are trying to make the smartbook substantively different from a Netbook. Qualcomm sees it, in essence, as a large smartphone, which leaves the outdated Windows desktop experience in the dust. "A Netbook in our view is just a cheap laptop that runs Windows. We see the smartbook cannibalizing the Netbook. ... Read more

Consumers won't see a "Qualcomm Inside" sticker on new Windows Mobile phones, but the chip supplier is playing a big role in powering the first crop of phones based on Microsoft's new operating system.

Microsoft announced on Tuesday the first phones to carry the Windows Phone brand and run the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system--which offers Adobe Flash support, an upgraded browser, and menus that can be navigated with a finger. AT&T has already announced smartphones, with dozens more expected to be rolled out by the end of the year.

HTC HD2 packs a 1GHZ Qualcomm processor

The Tilt 2 and Pure both use Qualcomm MSM7000 series processors, as do a number of other new Windows Mobile phones. These chips typically run at 528GHz--a fairly common speed grade for mobile phones.

Toshiba TG01

But it's at the high end where things get interesting. The Apple iPhone-like HTC HD2 and Acer neoTouch use Qualcomm's latest-and-greatest processor, the 1GHz Snapdragon, also known as the QSD8250.

The HTC HD2, for example, packs 512 MB of ROM memory, 448 MB of RAM, claims video playback battery life of up to 8 hours, and a uses a relatively large 4.3-inch diagonal screen (specifications here.)

And Toshiba has been shipping a Windows phone since June that also uses the Snapdragon processor. Only 9.9 millimeters thick, it integrates a 4.1-inch WVGA 800x480 384k pixel resistive touchscreen and comes with support for 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, and assisted-GPS.

Snapdragon itself supports high-definition (720p) video decode and cameras ranging up to 12 megapixels.

Qualcomm won't stop at 1GHz: the San Diego-based company has demonstrated Netbooks running a 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor and will eventually push the chip to 1.5GHz. Future Qualcomm chips will be dual-core and support 1080p (laptop-class) high-definition video.

But there is still plenty of chip competition in the smartphone market. Though Qualcomm's presence is unmistakable in this first crop of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones, it competes with Texas Instruments in the broader cell phone and smartphone markets. "Qualcomm is a newcomer on the block in terms of applications processors," said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at market researcher In-Stat, adding that TI's OMAP processor is the most widely-used processor.

A standalone applications processor is roughly analogous to the main Intel or Advanced Micro Devices processor in a PC: it is basically the brains of a smartphone.

Qualcomm will offer its FLO TV on a handheld television, putting this existing service on a dedicated device for the first time.

Qualcomm's FLO TV Personal Television

(Credit: Qualcomm)

FLO TV, the Qualcomm-owned provider of a live mobile TV service, unveiled the FLO TV Personal Television on Tuesday, with availability slated for holiday season at retailers.

FLO, or "forward link only" technology, is designed for multicasting a large volume of rich multimedia content cost effectively to wireless subscribers. AT&T and Verizon already offer FLO TV on mobile phones in the U.S.

Qualcomm says the FLO TV Personal Television is "created with the single focus of delivering high-quality TV." The device receives live and time-shifted content with no buffering, downloading or waiting to view content, according to Qualcomm.

Content includes CNBC, Comedy Central, ESPN, ESPNews, Fox, Fox News, Fox Sports, MSNBC, MTV, NBC2Go, NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Nickelodeon, CBS, CBS College Sports, and CBS News. (Editors' note: CBS College Sports and CBS News are offerings of CBS, which is also the parent company of CNET News.)

Though handheld TV is still somewhat of an unknown quantity, viewership--like that of more traditional big-screen TV-- tends to spike during major national events, according to Qualcomm. Its service saw a surge in viewers, for example, during March Madness--the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.

Qualcomm cited market research from TeleAnalytics that projects a broadcast mobile TV market of $2.8 billion and 50 million users in North American by 2013.

FLO TV Personal Television subscription service starts at $8.99 per month and the device will sell for $249.99. Specifications include a 3.5-inch diagonal screen and weight of of just over 5 ounces. Its battery supports more than 5 hours of active FLO TV viewing or 300 hours standby.

The television uses a capacitive touch-screen allowing channel surfing with a finger swipe. It also includes a built-in stand and stereo speakers.

Updated on October 5 at 2:00 p.m. PDT: adding information about support for iPhone

Adobe Systems has garnered the support of mobile heavy hitters such as Google, Motorola, Nvidia, Palm, RIM, and Qualcomm for its new Flash Player 10.1 software for smartphones, Netbooks, and other mobile devices. The company plans to announce the support Monday at its developer conference in Los Angeles.

Adobe's goal is to get Flash Player 10.1 accelerated directly on the chips in smartphones, Netbooks, and small laptops based on the ARM chip architecture, called smartbooks. To date, Flash video acceleration has not been available widely on mobile devices.

"It's critical to support in hardware because (Flash) video is really computationally intensive," Tom Barclay, Adobe senior product marketing manager for Flash Player, said in an interview. "Putting that on the hardware provides the ability to play it back fluidly...so you're not going to drain the battery on these devices."

Though Flash-based video is available on virtually all PCs, "the vast majority of mobile devices have been fundamentally closed," according to Barclay. "This means there is a single (device maker) or carrier or handset manufacturer that can stop technology from getting onto those devices. And that's one of the reasons why the Web as been so slow to be directly accessible from those devices."

Toward the end of getting Flash to run directly on small mobile devices, Adobe created the Open Screen Project. "The Open Screen project is about making more of those devices open. In particular, providing flash player for free in an open manner with the requirement that (device suppliers) make it open for developers," Barclay said.

Adobe also announced on Monday that Google has joined the Open Screen Project initiative. Handset manufacturers such as Motorola will ship Google Android based devices with Flash Player support "early next year," according to a Motorola statement. Companies such as Nvidia, Broadcom, Nokia, RIM, and ARM chip suppliers such as Qualcomm, are all participants in the Open Screen Project.

Conspicuous by its absence was Apple. "Flash is not available on the iPhone at this point," said Adrian Ludwig, group manager, flash platforms at Adobe. "So far, we haven't received the support that we need from Apple." (Note: Adobe announced Monday that programmers will be able to create native iPhone applications using Adobe's Flash Professional CS5 developer tool, currently in beta testing, then offer their programs as an Apple App Store download.)

Apple aside, this is all part of an aggressive push by Adobe to get acceleration on mobile devices. More than 75 percent of video on the Web is delivered through the Flash Player, according to Ludwig. "Having the Flash player on your device means you're able to access all the content out there on the Web," Ludwig said, referring to referring to such sites as YouTube, the video inside MySpace, and Facebook, as well as Fox News and CNN.

Games are also a target. Ludwig pointed to Flash-based games, such as Playfish and FarmVille, played on social-networking sites.

A public developer beta of Flash 10.1 is expected ... Read more

As Intel readies its most potent chip yet for small devices, Apple may already be using competing technology.

Apple iPhone 3GS processor

(Credit: iFixit)

One of the themes of the upcoming Intel Developer Forum (starting Tuesday) will be the chip giant's foray into the smartphone and mobile Internet device (MID) markets. Intel's current Atom chip is fine for Netbooks but has had little impact on MIDs and zero impact on smartphones, where it is simply too power hungry to be usable.

Enter Moorestown. A much more power efficient Atom chip, due by 2010, that should find its way into high-end LG smartphones, MIDs from Asian device makers, and tablets (from HP? Dell?).

Just so happens that Apple is doing analogous chip development. When Apple acquired chip design firm P.A. Semi in March 2008 it got a team of very capable engineers that, almost certainly, are designing silicon for future iPhones, iPods, and tablets (or "media pads"--choose your nomenclature).

But it's really not even necessary to speculate about the future. The Apple chip has already arrived (see photo). Some analysts believe that the Apple-branded chip in the iPhone is a fairly unique design and that Apple is simply using Samsung as a chip "foundry" or manufacturer. That would mean Apple is already competing with Intel's Atom, not to mention the host of ARM chip suppliers such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm.

And where might Apple supply its own silicon in the future? Beyond the iPhone--where Intel clearly has nothing to offer currently--there's the expected emerging tablet and MID markets. Make the iPod touch's screen a few inches bigger diagonally, add a few more features and you theoretically have a MID. (Some, of course, will argue that the iPod is already a MID/media player.) Make the screen even bigger (8 to 10 inches), give it more compute and graphics horsepower, and add a few more software and hardware bells and whistles, and you theoretically have a next-generation Apple tablet and/or media pad.

Those are all markets where Intel's Moorestown (and, later, Medfield) will compete.

Apple has a current market capitalization of about $165 billion (Intel's is about $110 billion). Two heavyweights with two competing visions of small devices. Will one of the big battlegrounds of the future be Apple tablets versus Intel-based tablets? Or--perish the thought--an Apple Netbook using an Apple chip instead of an Intel Atom? It's tantalizing to speculate.

And 2010 is just around the corner. It should be an interesting year for fresh new device designs and equally interesting competition between two computer industry Goliaths.

Note: Here's the official Intel description of Moorestown: "Intel's second-generation MID platform, which consists of a System on Chip (codenamed 'Lincroft') that integrates a 45nm Intel Atom processor core, graphics, video and memory controller. The platform also includes an input/output (I/O) hub, codenamed 'Langwell,' that includes a range of I/O blocks and supports wireless solutions.

(See: CNET Reporters Roundtable discussion of IDF and other Intel topics.)

The gadget industry is waiting in suspense, wondering if you're going to buy an Apple tablet. Because if you do, they're going to flip the production line's on switch.

The ultrathin MacBook Air exudes some of the aspects of an expected Apple tablet, according to one analyst.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple has a knack for creating new categories of devices. The iPhone arguably created the high-end smartphone segment and the design was parroted by dozens of device makers and carriers. The MacBook Air inspired the ultrathin laptop category.

The expected--and highly anticipated--Apple tablet would do the same. Manufacturing companies in Asia are eager to find a new category of devices to fill up their factories, according to an analyst I spoke with recently who monitors these things.

I will make an exception--which I almost never do--and not identify the analyst. He claims to have seen a prototype of the Apple tablet and would prefer not to be identified. (Yeah, I know, more than a few analysts claim they have seen the furtive device. But I will go out on a limb and say I trust him. He claims the MacBook Air has some of the aesthetic qualities of the tablet.)

The point is that many Asia-based manufacturers would be quite pleased if the Apple tablet was a success and, as a result, ushered in a new device category. Needless to say, companies like Dell, Sony, and Acer would quickly follow suit if consumers started snapping up boatloads of Apple tablets.

But Apple will stay above the fray, according to this analyst, offering a device that's very thin, light--and expensive. In other words, don't expect Apple to bring out a $199 tablet, as you may see from other companies that market a media pad-type device. Apple won't be bashful about charging more than $500.

Competing devices will vary widely. My prediction is that the market outside of an Apple-branded tablet will not be a Windows-Intel enclave. Like cell phones and media players, many tablet devices will likely be offered by carriers and device makers using the ubiquitous ARM processor that runs operating systems like Google's Android or the upcoming Chrome OS.

Why ARM chips? They're cheap, very power efficient (necessary for all-day battery life), and have enough horsepower to make a tablet experience compelling. Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Nvidia are either offering chips now--or are slated to bring out silicon next year--that can easily scale up from smartphones to larger devices like tablets or media pads.

What's that? Don't think you would buy one? Don't think a tablet fills a market need? Get back to me a year from now when you have a sudden epiphany and find yourself in an Apple Store or Best Buy eying one as an essential adjunct to your inner circle of gadgets.

Speculation about a rumored Apple tablet may be an exercise in futility, but it is an interesting exercise nonetheless. In this case, my speculation will extend to what may be inside an Apple tablet.

Will the design philosophy spring from the notion of an upsized iPhone or a downsized MacBook? I believe it will be the former since this is a more natural evolution of the hardware and software. But I will entertain both options.

Because this tablet is rumored to appear in 2010, the Intel silicon possibility--however remote--is, I believe, as follows.

First scenario: Intel's in a tablet with laptop lineage. This will offer higher performance and better power savings than the current Atom processor--which is Intel's most power-stingy chip technology. Pine Trail integrates a graphics processor onto the same piece of silicon as the main processor--a first for Intel. (Intel's future "Arrandale" Core i series mobile processor, in contrast, will put the main processor and graphics into the same chip package, not onto the same chip.)

Intel's next-generation integrated graphics silicon technology is largely unknown. But tablets should deliver graphics performance that doesn't disappoint, as this is a shortcoming often brought up by critics of Netbooks.

A real tablet based on a 600MHz ARM processor: the Archos 7

(Credit: Archos)

The more likely non-Intel tablet.

Second scenario: Apple's ARM silicon in an upsized iPod/iPhone. This seems a much more likely scenario than Intel silicon. The that, according to reports, runs at 600MHz. How Apple would tweak this design for a tablet is so highly speculative that I will not hazard much of a guess.

Suffice to say, inside of Apple there is more intellectual capital invested in ARM-based designs than Intel-based ones because of the and the success of the iPhone. And the fact that the iPhone's ARM processor has "Apple" stamped on it should not be overlooked.

Here's the guess that I will hazard: a faster processor analogous to Qualcomm's ARM-based 1GHz Snapdragon processor. that they had co-developed a 1GHz chip similar to the processor that currently powers the iPhone 3GS. And this is the same kind of processor that Qualcomm is targeting for , which could be either a Netbook or tablet.

Freescale's concept "smartbook" tablet

(Credit: Freescale)

Graphics is less clear but U.K.-based Imagination Technologies provides the PowerVR graphics core inside the iPhone's ARM silicon. And Apple has expressed a keen interest in Imagination in the chip design firm to 9.5 percent.

And as a final thought, it is interesting to note that speculation about an Apple "iPad" has gone beyond mere individuals to . Do they know something that we don't?

Where's your comfort zone? Windows, Mac, Linux? An unintellectual, emotional attachment to an operating environment often determines what consumers buy and may determine whether Google Chrome can ultimately compete with Windows.

In the consumer laptop space, specifically Netbooks, there isn't much hope for a Linux-based operating system like Google Chrome in the near term. So, first the bad news.

Market researcher iSuppli released a report Friday that I agree with. It begins with the usual, saying that Google's Linux-based Chrome operating system sets the stage for a battle of the Titans (Google versus Microsoft). But what it said after that affirmed my own convictions (and echoed comments I had heard before from other analysts).

"The small penetration of Linux in Netbooks is not due to any technical shortcomings," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research for iSuppli. "Because the vast majority of people who buy Netbooks are consumers, who do not have a high degree of knowledge of the key players in the OS market, they are going with the names that they know. And in PCs, that name is Microsoft."

Asus fold-unfold mobile device concept: a compelling name-brand hardware-software package can change minds

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

The report continues: "For Google to be successful, it needs to promote and position its brand so that non-tech-savvy consumers will be comfortable buying a Netbook running its operating system rather than one from Microsoft. This will be a major challenge."

In other words, it's hard to move people out of their comfort zone, particularly if the alternative is fractured like Linux. But there's a silver lining for Google's OS. The comfort zone is shifting. If consumers spend more time on a social-networking site (Facebook, Twitter) or a Web-based productivity environment (Google search, Gmail, Google docs) that becomes their comfort zone (the so-called "cloud") rather than the Windows, or Apple, desktop.

Of course, that's all just theory unless something else happens. What's that extra something? Give consumers a high-profile, respected brand like Google packaged with a slick Netbook and more than a few more could break their ties with Windows (because it becomes irrelevant). Particularly if the price is right.

It's been done before. A charismatic device like the iPhone proves that. In that case, consumers left the tenuous comfort zone of their interface-challenged cell phones in droves and embraced the iPhone.

But this doesn't happen often. And you need a very big, truly innovative company like Apple or Google to pull it off.

Conversations I had this week with both Texas Instruments and Qualcomm executives offer hope in the long term. TI and Qualcomm are building the chips that Chrome will run on and both have been working with Google. (TI told me that they have the Chrome OS running in some form already on their silicon.) Though Intel also says it is working with Google, I suspect Chrome is more of an ARM processor play than an Intel play.

Whatever happens in the next 12 months or so will be interesting and, at the very least, can only add to growing momentum behind mobile devices using ARM processors and non-Windows operating environments.