ARM Disappointed in Lack of Smartbooks, Blames Adobe

Smartbooks have been in the works for quite some time, but this product category has still not managed to become a market, even though, by ARM's count, the segment should have been up and running before the end of last year. In fact, instead of becoming the newest mobile Internet-device category, smartbooks became evidence of how plans didn't always work out. In this case, they showed that marketing conditions could act as a serious handicap for a certain device type, even before said type gets a chance to start selling.

Though the causes are many, there are two main factors that kept delaying the emergence of the smartbook market. One is the rise of the tablet, which caused manufacturers to shift their attention in another direction. The other, according to what ARM Marketing Vice President Ian Drew told ZDNet UK, is Adobe's failure to optimize Flash Player 10 and Air for the ARM architecture in a timely fashion.

An Android smartphone-optimized Flash version was supposed to come out early last year, according to a deal that Adobe made with ARM in 2008. Had this occurred as planned, Smartbooks would have already started selling before the end of 2009. This did not come to pass, however. In fact, said versions will only be completed sometime during the second half of the ongoing year.

"We thought [smartbooks] would be launched by now, but they're not," Drew told ZDNet UK on Tuesday. "I think one reason [has] to do with software maturity. We've seen things like Adobe slip — we'd originally scheduled for something like 2009."

"I am disappointed that you can't go down to PC World and buy a smartbook at the moment, but I'm convinced something will happen," Drew said.

On the other hand, ARM is optimistic about Adobe finally getting close to unleashing the new Flash version, but the delay may have created a bigger problem. Intel just detailed its Atom Z6xx series of chips for smartphones and tablets, the Moorestown platform, and these processors will probably launch around the same time as the smartbooks. This will probably force ARM into a competition, even though the issue of performance relative to Intel's chipset supposedly didn't come up in discussions with manufacturers so far.

It's worth noting that most smartbook manufacturers will not be able to market their devices as a smartbook in Germany and probably other countries.