14 DAY TRIAL // Smartbooks have only recently started selling and they have not exactly reached a stage where they have already established themselves as a product category or a brand. Only recently have companies such as HP and Pioneer begun to market this new type of ultraportable devices, with the late introduction of such devices mostly owed to their questionable ability of surviving alongside netbooks. Unlike these manufacturers, however, ABI Research sees a rather bright future ahead of such mobile electronics, provided a few conditions are met.
ABI Research takes some time in order to define the term smartbook and what it stands for. Basically, a smartbook is a low-power device that runs a mobile operating system, is powered by an ARM processor and has a screen size between seven and ten inches. This implies that the only real difference between smartbooks and netbooks is the fact that the latter use x86 processors, whereas the former do not.
“As ABI Research defines it, a smartbook is a low-powered device running a mobile operating system that is always connected, either via Wi-Fi or (more often) using cellular or mobile broadband. Smartbooks can take many different shapes,” ABI Research senior analyst Jeff Orr says. “They are a subset of MIDs (mobile Internet devices) and netbooks, and address the same potential users, usage, pricing, and market needs. The difference is that they don’t use x86 processors.”
“The idea of ‘a smartbook’ doesn’t resonate with anybody thinking of buying such a device,” Orr adds. “Vendors should avoid creating a separate market category with a new name, instead accepting that they are competing in an established category. Consumers hear about netbooks as alternatives to laptops and MIDs as alternatives to mobile phones, and can understand that. We believe the best opportunity in this ultra-mobile device market lies in new form-factors.”
The research firm predicts that, despite the fact that the smartbook market is only in its beginning stages, it will reach about 163 million sales by 2015. In order to achieve this success, however, ABI Research believes that not only will manufacturers have to bring some innovation to the form factor, but they will also have to reach price points of under $200.