14 DAY TRIAL // The concept of smartbook has been seeing an increasing attention over the past few months and companies are beginning to consider the possibility of such devices succeeding in creating a market segment of their own. Back in October, the company was reported to be working on a smartbook device that would be launched during the first quarter of 2010. However, in the meantime, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen seems to have changed his opinion on the smartbooks' chances to perform as well as intended.
"I think there is some good opportunity [but] on one hand you have the smartphone and on the other the [netbook]," Shen said in an interview with ZDNet UK. "Do you really need something in between? It's worth more thought."
This idea seems to coincide with the opinion Shen had back in August 2009, when the smartbook project was delayed because there was no real guarantee that the market would allow such devices to survive. Smartbooks would indeed be cheaper than netbooks, but they would have to be based on ARM chips. This implies that such devices would have to run the Android OS, which would not appeal to consumers used to Windows.
"I don't think that [the slate will replace the notebook]," Shih said. "The mainstream may still need to type. We already have that [the slate] in our lab too, but it's the same situation that I mentioned before — what's the right timing? If you do not provide all the content, you can't say you are ready."
Shen added that a smartbook's performance would only be encouraged by a large-enough variety of touch-enabled games, video on demand, music and e-books, as well as social networking. The ZDNet UK article noted that, even though ASUS had already completed a model, it was working on Chrome prototypes at the moment, as this upcoming OS might be superior to Android.
While it is unclear when, and if, ASUS will release its smartbook, the first Chrome OS products are expected towards the end of the ongoing year.