Qualcomm, Freescale say 'smartbooks' to rival Netbooks
CARLSBAD, Calif.--Qualcomm and Freescale Semiconductor are ready to begin pushing a category of devices that they say are cheaper, lighter, and more connected than Intel-based Netbooks.
And just to make sure that the difference is crystal clear, both companies are calling the category "smartbooks."
"We are relabling with the term 'smartbook.' We are joining others in using this term," said Glen Burchers, director of global consumer segment marketing at Freescale, in a phone interview Thursday. "The manufacturers that are using ARM-based devices are cooperating in using this terminology," according to Burchers.
"The smartbook is the smartphone experience on a larger form factor," according to Luis Pineda, vice president of marketing at Qualcomm's CDMA technologies division, speaking during a teleconference on Thursday.
So, what makes a smartbook different from the Netbooks being sold by companies like Dell and Hewlett-Packard? Netbooks use an Intel Atom processor and, typically, Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Smartbooks will use processors based on an ARM design and the Linux operating system. And 3G connectivity will be standard--like a typical smartphone.
ARM chips offer better power efficiency than Atom processors and ARM-based devices come with virtually no cost overhead for the operating system. "The primary distinction between them (smartbooks) and the existing crop of Netbooks will be longer battery life--eight-hour battery life--slimmer form factor, and lower price point," said Burchers.
One Snapdragon-based prototype uses a tablet motif. Both Qualcomm and Freescale say that the term smartbook will encompass multiple designs. 3G connectivity--the standard for smartphones--is key.
(Credit: Qualcomm)Other distinguishing features are "instant-on" and "persistent connectivity," according to Burchers. "The idea is that the device is intelligent enough to go fetch your emails and your messages automatically. And this is what you'd expect from a smartphone," he said, trying to emphasize that the device would operate in some ways more like a smartphone than a Netbook.
Qualcomm, for its part, has a Web site dedicated to smartbook prototypes and concept devices and lists standard features such as 3G mobile broadband, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and HD video. Qualcomm hosted a dinner at the The Wall Street Journal's "D7: All Things Digital" conference, where company executives discussed the smartbook strategy.
Qualcomm's smartbooks will be powered by its Snapdragon processor, while Freescale's chips use an uncatchy "i.MX515" moniker. Both companies license the basic chip design from U.K.-based ARM. In Qualcomm's case, it has an ARM architecture license which allows the San Diego, Calif.-based company to do major modifications to the basic chip design.
Another Qualcomm prototype is a classic clamshell design. Some Freescale-based devices will also be clamshell designs.
(Credit: Qualcomm)The first smartbook devices are appearing from so-called original design manufacturers or ODMs, which typically don't market under their brand name but supply devices to large PC makers which then slap on their brand. Wistron and Pegatron, both ODMs, will be showing Freescale-based 10-inch clamshell devices at the Computex conference, Burchers said. Computex starts next week in Taipei.
"These are the first near production-ready devices that we expect to find a home at OEMs (brand-name device makers) before Christmas time this year. We should definitely be able to hit the $199 retail price," according to Burchers.
Nvidia--while not tying itself to the smartbook nomenclature--is also expected to show devices based on its ARM-based Tegra processor at Computex. Nvidia has been touting a $99 "HD mobile Internet device" that telecommunications companies would offer with subscription plans--the route that devices based on Qualcomm and Freescale chips are also expected to take.
Netbooks, by contrast, are typically priced between $300 and $500.
One the challenges facing all ARM-based device makers is the lack of a Windows operating system--a problem that XP- and future Windows 7-based Netbooks don't have. Freescale and others are looking to Google's Android OS, due commercially in devices next year, to counter the marquee draw that Windows has.
"The potential that Google has--this has got everybody's attention," Burchers said. "One thing that's driving that is the Google brand. The second thing is that finally there's one-stop shopping for an operating system that is an alternative to Windows. Linux (generically) is an alternative to Windows but it is fragmented. There are too many derivatives," according to Burchers.
Until the potential of Android in smartbooks is realized, the lack of a Windows operating system will always pose a problem for some consumers, especially in laptop-like clamshell designs.
"The biggest inhibiting factor is that it doesn't have any legacy (established PC) operating system compatibility because Microsoft is unlikely to provide native support for it near-term," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at investment bank Collins Stewart. "For the mainstream market, unless they get Microsoft compatibility it's going to be a long road," Kumar added.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
Some companies tried to use Linux in their Netbooks, but this attempt wasn't successful.
This type of products seems to be another laptop spin off, so I don't see it having a mass appeal if it won't use Windows.
But Android may change this in the future.
I won't argue with you that there may be other alternatives that may be better than Windows. But this doesn't change the fact that most people are familiar with Windows, and this is one of the reason they keep buying Windows based machines.
But I must add that I think that Windows is not a bad OS. On the contrary. And even Vista is a great OS. The problem is that the alternatives to Windows, as far as I know (and I don't have a lot of experience with these alternatives), don't surpass Windows in a lot of areas. If the case was that there is another OS that is superior to Windows, your point is valid. But in may view this is not the case, and Windows is a good OS, which just works fine for most people.
Netbooks and now, Smartbooks (catch name) are a whole different scenario. Just as people using iPhones, BlackBerries and Zunes don't care about the eXPerience (pun intended), new niches might as well afford some independence from Windows.
I don't think that 2009 will be the year of the SmartBook or the Wintel-less Netbook but I'm sure that day is coming. It is not that Windows has ended its life time, just like S/390 is still in use on today's mainframes but was useless for a PCs. People demand legacy only when legacy fits the bill and provides a decent solution.
So Windows might become like the serial port,parallel port and floppy disk, that is: still be used on PCs but no longer on laptops. Same will happen with VGA (once HDMI gets solidified).
Also you should keep your watch at NVDIA and ready her silence from the Smartbook move. Maybe they are waiting for the market to become stabe and are thinking on creating a Netbook/Smartbook hybrid using Tegra and ION, that is a Netbook that starts with Android using the Tegra part and has a big "Windows" button on screen, which boots XP or 7 from the hard drive and using the Atom.
That way we could have an "instant-on" smartphone like device and still use Windows when one's at the desk ready to type things in Word, or access the company's Exchange server. In between you get the 8-hour long use and web mail, twitter and all that stuff that is perfectly presented on Moblin or Android and doesn't require the battery hog Atom.
The current generation of netbooks are basically small & cheap notebooks. Smartbooks are really what netbooks should have been in the first place: low cost, internet-connected computers, for email, messaging, web browsing, social networks, music, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Asus and other companies tried to sell Netbooks with Linux installed on them. As far as I know, this move failed and now most of the Netbooks come with XP.
I won't argue that things seem to be changing, Windows is having fierce competition, and Win 7 needs to match and surpass the competition.
I just think that some commentators on this site forget that most non-IT users don't want to mess out with dual-boot, etc. Most users just want to be able to run the software that they know, and to be able to open old data on their new PCs.
As I've mentioned, things are changing, but I just don't see Windows disappearing any time soon - for good or bad.
*just one more thing. I don't see the advantage of having an Android and an XP/Win 7 button. You may save battery life, but Intel and likes are working on power efficient CPUs, which should have low voltage consumption.
But the new minds use new paradigms. Like netbooks and smartbooks. But as always, ideas have to been mature for them to stick. Just ask Palm (with its Foleo) and Psion with its appropriately called netBook.
Check out Moblin and check out Android and you'll notice they do things Windows can do, but not with that ease.
Also, low power Intel chips have a limit and remember that they are just first and second generation, while ARM is in 11 generation and has been used for far more low power applications. A hybrid net-smartbook would go 8 to 10 hours on Linux load, but just 2 or 3 hours on Windows load. The logic. The first hours was on your car or on your lap, checking Facebook, Ning and Twitter and the other hours are on your office, checking Outlook, doing Word and calculating on Excel. Microsoft "excels" on that paradigm. On the other one, the ball is on the air (pun intended) for anybody to catch.
Some companies tried to use Linux in their Netbooks, but this attempt wasn't successful.
This type of products seems to be another laptop spin off, so I don't see it having a mass appeal if it won't use Windows.
But Android may change this in the future.
I have no idea what to do with all those Ubuntu boxes I've been building in my garage, though. Maybe I can just unplug them from my tv, get them out of my home office, have my kid unplug hers, and take them back from the charities I've been donating them to. If only I had known about Windows' status a bit sooner I could have saved all those people the trouble.
And to think that I was looking forward to trying out a smartbook, too. Oh well! Live and learn, I guess.
In my personal opinion, for my own personal use; if i'm not using it to play games then there is absolutely no reason to have windows on that device.
Take a look at the ipod. Is it the best music player out there? No, but people are familiar with it, so they keep using it. I think it is a good portable music device, but there are others which do the job better.
And Apple would be different how?
I mean how does replacing opening IE with opening safari make the steps any less?
I wonder how Snapdragon compares to Tegra though?
THAT is what I find exciting!
Is Freescale still doing PowerPC chips? I surely wouldn't mind having a "smartbook" with a processor architecture that can't even run most malware/virii based on x86 code, along with a few choices of Linux to run on it. That is, if it's fast enough to get basic work tasks and web surfing done.
Sharp had a linux PDA called the Zaurus. The hardware was superior, the price was less than other PDA's at the time, and yet it failed in the market because of lack of applications and difficulty to use. It was fine for geeks, but for the average person... no.
I hope this one makes it. I'd probably buy one as a novelty at least. I just hope it doesn't stay a novelty. If I need to take a net connected device out with me, I'll take a netbook instead.
I'll just take it as more biased Microsoft hate mongering.
Find me a virus for Vista or Seven that requires absolutely no user interaction must also be able to do damage.
What can this do that my iPhone (which fits in my pocket and goes everywhere with me) can not? Just having a bigger screen is really of zero value to me.
I already have a EEEPC running Linux and it is very useful. It surfs the Web, and has a number of editors for coding and Word processing, as well as some games and the ability to play movies which my kid likes. I keep it in my car and it means I always have a computer with me. Most of the time a laptop is too big to take with me and keeping a laptop in a car is pointless because it can break, battery life is limited, and it is slow to load as it runs Windows.
It is logical that a smartbook lies between a smartphone and a netbook/laptop. The price should be a driving factor once again, and if it comes with Android, then even better. All I need now is to find some smartstores that sell them.
So this idea that people need Windows on a netbook is not true. The problem is that the first Netbooks shipped with linux but not the applications that can do all those things I listed.
A mini portable based on Android or iPhone OS or Mac OS X or a Windows 7 Mobile variant or even Linux bundled with real and familiar applications would not have the same limitations as the early mini laptops did.
To a certain degree, the machine would run much more efficiently and trouble free if it didn't have a desktop OS installed on it.
All you have to answer is 'does it have the internets?' unfortunately there is no marketing budget behind linux to answer that question to the mass market's satisfaction. yes, linux may be all that and a bag of chips, but saying linux is like saying 'it uses the metric system'.
- by john2313 September 10, 2009 6:24 PM PDT
- I think these will sell like crazy as long as they're priced as they expect around 150-175, thats around the price of some laptop batteries, 1/2 to 1/4 the price of a smartphone which has the same hardware, half the cost or less of a netbook, and overall very little money for a nice piece of tech. It's an easy sell, whereas netbooks are floating around the same price as a cheap laptop, not always an easy decision which to get. Smartphones are ok but who wants to web-surf, run apps, type, etc. on those little things with a 3-inch screen... lame. And for the comment about apple doing it better, i doubt it, and if you're dumb enough to pay the premium they'll likely charge the joke's on you.
- Reply to this comment
-
(38 Comments)