Smartbook
Encyclopedia
A smartbook was a class of mobile device that combined certain features of both a smartphone
and netbook
computer, promoted in 2009 and 2010.
Smartbooks were advertised with features such as always on, all-day battery life
, 3G
, or Wi-Fi
connectivity and GPS (all typically found in smartphones) in a laptop
or tablet-style body with a screen size of 5 to 10 inches and a physical or soft touchscreen
keyboard.
A German company sold laptop
s under the brand Smartbook and held a trademark
for the word in many countries (not including some big markets like United States
, China
, Japan
, or India
). It acted to preempt others from using the term smartbook to describe their products.
Smartbooks tended to be designed more for entertainment purposes than for productivity and typically targeted to work with online applications. They were projected to be sold subsidized through mobile network operator
s, like mobile phone
s, along with a wireless data plan.
in May 2009 during marketing for its Snapdragon technology, with products expected later that year. Difficulties in adapting key software (in particular, Adobe's proprietary Flash Player
) to the ARM architecture delayed releases until the first quarter of 2010.
Smartbooks would have been powered by processors which were more energy-efficient than traditional ones typically found in desktop and laptop computers. The first smartbooks were expected to use variants of the Linux
operating system
, such as Google's Android or Chrome OS. The ARM
processor would have allowed them to achieve longer battery life than many larger devices using x86 processors.
In February 2010, ABI Research
projected that 163 million smartbooks would ship in 2015.
In many countries the word Smartbook was a trademark registered by Smartbook AG. In August 2009 a German court ruled Qualcomm must block access from Germany to all its webpages containing the word Smartbook unless Smartbook AG is mentioned. Smartbook AG defended its trademark.
A February 2010 ruling prevented Lenovo from using the term.
By the end of 2010, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs
admitted that tablet computer
s such as the iPad
already occupied the niche of the smartbook, so the name was dropped.
In February 2011 Qualcomm won its legal battle when the German patent office ruled the words "smart" and "book" could be used. However, several trademarks have been registered.
Here some Devices: Smartbook i-1100Z (2006)
Smartbook i-1500C (2006) | Smartbook i-2500V (2006) | Smartbook i-3900Y (2006) | Smartbook i-7500N (2007) | Smartbook Predator (2008) | Smartbook Heaven XTC (2008) | Smartbook ZENiD (2008) | Smartbook Hornet (2008) | Smartbook ZENiD GC CRYSTAL & Smartbook Heaven Puro (2009)
Some companies actually (since Mai 2009) seem to proclaim, that a device called a smartbook shall be a mobile device that falls between smartphones and netbooks, delivering features typically found in smartphones. Actually, there is no Product of that kind on the market and nobody! calls a device smartbook, except the trademarkowner Smartbook AG.
. It was based on the Texas Instruments
OMAP 3530 which implemented the ARM Cortex-A8
architecture. It was originally developed from the Texas Instruments Beagle Board
. It had a touchscreen and a detachable keyboard which contained a second battery. The device came with a Linux operating system and the company offered to license their hardware designs.
based Freescale i.MX515 and was packaged in a small clamshell design. Sharp reported the device weighs less than 500 grams and will run 10 hours on one battery charge. The device is said to run 720p video, and have both 2D and 3D graphics acceleration. It comes with Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 installed.
company, showed a working prototype of a smartbook in August 2009. It consisted of an ARM Cortex-A8 based Freescale i.MX515 supports 2D/3D graphics as well as 720p
HD video, 512 MB DDR2 RAM
, 1024x600 8.9" LCD screen, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11g and run off a SD card. It also featured one USB and one micro USB port, a VGA port as well as a card reader. The smartbook ran Ubuntu
Netbook 9.04 and contained a version of Adobe Flash Player
which was out of date. The bill of materials
for the Pegatron smartbook prototype was $120.
In November 2009 Pegatron said it had received a large number of orders for smartbooks that would launch in early 2010. The devices were rumored to sell for about $200 when subsidized. Asus
announced plans to release their own smartbook in the first quarter of 2010. Asus later postponed the smartbook launch to the second quarter of 2010.
was expected to announce a smartbook on November 12, 2009 at an analyst meeting.
A Lenovo device concept was shown, and announced in January 2010.
In May 2010 the Skylight was cancelled.
(FCC) listing featured a device from HP that was referred as smartbook, while a prototype of the same device was already shown earlier. In beginning February on Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HP announced it will bring this device to market. The specifications will most likely be following:
In the end of March 2010 the smartbook made an appearance at FCC again, this time listing its 3G
capabilities. According to FCC, the device will support GSM 850 and 1900, as well as WCDMA II and V bands. These WCDMA bands may indicate the usage in AT&T network in the United States. Details of the product is now available on the HP website.
was announced. It will feature Nvidia Tegra processor and should be able to remain in stand-by mode
for up to 7 days. The device is officially available now at the Toshiba UK site. OS is Android v2.1 (upgradable to v2.2 since 2011 ).
company announced an MX Smartbook as part of their Efika
line in August 2010.
It was originally priced at US$
349, and some reviewers questioned if it was small enough to fit this definition. The price has since been reduced to $199. It is ostensibly a derivative of the above mentioned Pegatron design.
announced it is working on smartbook development.
In November 2009, a Quanta Computers
pre-production Snapdragon powered sample smartbook device that ran Android OS was unveiled.
In December 2009 Acer announced it wanted to be the first to launch a Google Chrome OS
netbook, sometimes called a Chromebook
.
It was reported in February 2010 that Samsung
was working on a Google Chrome OS
-based netbook that would be powered by Snapdragon technology.
In April 2010, Dell
was rumored to be working on its own smartbook.
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
and netbook
Netbook
Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, and inexpensive laptop computers.At their inception in late 2007 as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost — netbooks omitted certain features , featured smaller screens and keyboards, and offered reduced computing...
computer, promoted in 2009 and 2010.
Smartbooks were advertised with features such as always on, all-day battery life
Battery life
Battery life can refer to*How long a mobile device can work on a single charge of a rechargeable battery.*Battery lifetime degrading of battery quality over time....
, 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
, or Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
connectivity and GPS (all typically found in smartphones) in a laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...
or tablet-style body with a screen size of 5 to 10 inches and a physical or soft touchscreen
Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
keyboard.
A German company sold laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...
s under the brand Smartbook and held a trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
for the word in many countries (not including some big markets like United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, or India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
). It acted to preempt others from using the term smartbook to describe their products.
Smartbooks tended to be designed more for entertainment purposes than for productivity and typically targeted to work with online applications. They were projected to be sold subsidized through mobile network operator
Mobile network operator
A mobile network operator , also known as mobile phone operator , carrier service provider , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, or cellular company, or mobile network carrier is a telephone company that provides services for mobile phone subscribers.One essential...
s, like mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s, along with a wireless data plan.
History
The smartbook concept was mentioned by QualcommQualcomm
Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...
in May 2009 during marketing for its Snapdragon technology, with products expected later that year. Difficulties in adapting key software (in particular, Adobe's proprietary Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
) to the ARM architecture delayed releases until the first quarter of 2010.
Smartbooks would have been powered by processors which were more energy-efficient than traditional ones typically found in desktop and laptop computers. The first smartbooks were expected to use variants of the Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
, such as Google's Android or Chrome OS. The ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
processor would have allowed them to achieve longer battery life than many larger devices using x86 processors.
In February 2010, ABI Research
ABI Research
ABI Research is a marketing research firm based in New York. It was founded in 1990. The organization provides research on the following areas:* Mobile Devices, Networks and Services* Telematics & Navigation* Digital Home* Wireless Connectivity...
projected that 163 million smartbooks would ship in 2015.
In many countries the word Smartbook was a trademark registered by Smartbook AG. In August 2009 a German court ruled Qualcomm must block access from Germany to all its webpages containing the word Smartbook unless Smartbook AG is mentioned. Smartbook AG defended its trademark.
A February 2010 ruling prevented Lenovo from using the term.
By the end of 2010, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs
Paul Jacobs
Paul Jacobs can refer to:*Paul Jacobs , American activist**Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang, documentary film about the above*Paul Jacobs , Flemish author*Paul Jacobs , professional hockey player...
admitted that tablet computer
Tablet computer
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
s such as the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
already occupied the niche of the smartbook, so the name was dropped.
In February 2011 Qualcomm won its legal battle when the German patent office ruled the words "smart" and "book" could be used. However, several trademarks have been registered.
Smartbook AG
A smartbook is a product, manufactured and or distributed by Smartbook AG, Germany.Here some Devices: Smartbook i-1100Z (2006)
Smartbook i-1500C (2006) | Smartbook i-2500V (2006) | Smartbook i-3900Y (2006) | Smartbook i-7500N (2007) | Smartbook Predator (2008) | Smartbook Heaven XTC (2008) | Smartbook ZENiD (2008) | Smartbook Hornet (2008) | Smartbook ZENiD GC CRYSTAL & Smartbook Heaven Puro (2009)
Some companies actually (since Mai 2009) seem to proclaim, that a device called a smartbook shall be a mobile device that falls between smartphones and netbooks, delivering features typically found in smartphones. Actually, there is no Product of that kind on the market and nobody! calls a device smartbook, except the trademarkowner Smartbook AG.
Always Innovating Touch Book
In March 2009 the Always Innovating company announced the Touch BookTouch Book
The Touch Book is a portable computing device that functions as a netbook, and also as a tablet. Designed by Always Innovating, it was launched at the DEMO conference in March 2009. Its designers stated at launch that it is the first netbook featuring a detachable keyboard with a long battery life...
. It was based on the Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
OMAP 3530 which implemented the ARM Cortex-A8
ARM Cortex-A8
The ARM Cortex-A8 is a processor core designed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARM v7 instruction set architecture. Compared to the ARM11 core, the Cortex-A8 is dual-issue superscalar, achieving roughly twice the instructions executed per clock cycle....
architecture. It was originally developed from the Texas Instruments Beagle Board
Beagle Board
The BeagleBoard is a low-power, low-cost open source hardware single-board computer produced by Texas Instruments in association with Digi-Key. The BeagleBoard was also designed with open source software development in mind, and as a way of demonstrating the Texas Instrument's OMAP3530...
. It had a touchscreen and a detachable keyboard which contained a second battery. The device came with a Linux operating system and the company offered to license their hardware designs.
Sharp Netwalker
Sharp Electronics, introduced their PC-Z1 "Netwalker" device in August 2009 with a promised ship date of October 2009. It featured a 5.5" touchscreen, runs Ubuntu on an ARM Cortex-A8ARM Cortex-A8
The ARM Cortex-A8 is a processor core designed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARM v7 instruction set architecture. Compared to the ARM11 core, the Cortex-A8 is dual-issue superscalar, achieving roughly twice the instructions executed per clock cycle....
based Freescale i.MX515 and was packaged in a small clamshell design. Sharp reported the device weighs less than 500 grams and will run 10 hours on one battery charge. The device is said to run 720p video, and have both 2D and 3D graphics acceleration. It comes with Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 installed.
Pegatron prototype
Pegatron, an AsusASUS
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...
company, showed a working prototype of a smartbook in August 2009. It consisted of an ARM Cortex-A8 based Freescale i.MX515 supports 2D/3D graphics as well as 720p
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
HD video, 512 MB DDR2 RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
, 1024x600 8.9" LCD screen, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11g and run off a SD card. It also featured one USB and one micro USB port, a VGA port as well as a card reader. The smartbook ran Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
Netbook 9.04 and contained a version of Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
which was out of date. The bill of materials
Bill of materials
A bill of materials is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, components, parts and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an end product...
for the Pegatron smartbook prototype was $120.
In November 2009 Pegatron said it had received a large number of orders for smartbooks that would launch in early 2010. The devices were rumored to sell for about $200 when subsidized. Asus
ASUS
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...
announced plans to release their own smartbook in the first quarter of 2010. Asus later postponed the smartbook launch to the second quarter of 2010.
Lenovo Skylight
QualcommQualcomm
Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...
was expected to announce a smartbook on November 12, 2009 at an analyst meeting.
A Lenovo device concept was shown, and announced in January 2010.
In May 2010 the Skylight was cancelled.
Compaq Airlife 100
In late January 2010 a U.S. Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) listing featured a device from HP that was referred as smartbook, while a prototype of the same device was already shown earlier. In beginning February on Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HP announced it will bring this device to market. The specifications will most likely be following:
- CPU: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
- Operating systemOperating systemAn operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
: Android - Display: 10.1 inch touchscreenTouchscreenA touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
- Storage: 16 GB SSDSolid-state driveA solid-state drive , sometimes called a solid-state disk or electronic disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner of a traditional block i/o hard disk drive...
- Networking: 3G3G3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
and Wi-FiWi-FiWi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20... - Battery: up to 12 hours, 10 days in standby mode
In the end of March 2010 the smartbook made an appearance at FCC again, this time listing its 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
capabilities. According to FCC, the device will support GSM 850 and 1900, as well as WCDMA II and V bands. These WCDMA bands may indicate the usage in AT&T network in the United States. Details of the product is now available on the HP website.
Toshiba AC100
In June 2010, a smartbook device from ToshibaToshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
was announced. It will feature Nvidia Tegra processor and should be able to remain in stand-by mode
Sleep mode
Sleep mode refers to a low power mode for electronic devices such as computers, televisions, and remote controlled devices. These modes save significant electrical consumption compared to leaving a device fully on and idle, but allow the user to avoid having to reset programming codes or wait for a...
for up to 7 days. The device is officially available now at the Toshiba UK site. OS is Android v2.1 (upgradable to v2.2 since 2011 ).
Genesi Efika MX
The GenesiGenesi
Genesi is computer company focused on building Power Architecture and ARM architecture computers. The organization is split into two units, Genesi USA, Inc. working out of Texas operating as the primary front-end for sales, customers and developers, and bplan GmbH based in Germany as the primary...
company announced an MX Smartbook as part of their Efika
EFIKA
Efika are a line of mobile computing Power Architecture and ARM architecture based computers manufactured by Genesi.In Esperanto efika means "efficacious, effective, or efficient".-Efika 5200B:...
line in August 2010.
It was originally priced at US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
349, and some reviewers questioned if it was small enough to fit this definition. The price has since been reduced to $199. It is ostensibly a derivative of the above mentioned Pegatron design.
Others
In September 2009, FoxconnFoxconn
The Foxconn Technology Group is a multinational business group anchored by the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. , a Taiwan-registered corporation headquartered in Tucheng, Taiwan...
announced it is working on smartbook development.
In November 2009, a Quanta Computers
Quanta Computers
Quanta Computer Incorporated is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of notebook computers and other electronic hardware. It is the largest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world...
pre-production Snapdragon powered sample smartbook device that ran Android OS was unveiled.
In December 2009 Acer announced it wanted to be the first to launch a Google Chrome OS
Google Chrome OS
Google Chrome OS is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. Google announced the operating system on July 7, 2009 and made it an open source project, called Chromium OS, that November....
netbook, sometimes called a Chromebook
Chromebook
A Chromebook is a personal computer running Google Chrome OS. The devices comprise a distinct class of personal computer falling between a pure cloud client and traditional laptop.The first devices for sale, by Acer Inc...
.
It was reported in February 2010 that Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
was working on a Google Chrome OS
Google Chrome OS
Google Chrome OS is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. Google announced the operating system on July 7, 2009 and made it an open source project, called Chromium OS, that November....
-based netbook that would be powered by Snapdragon technology.
In April 2010, Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
was rumored to be working on its own smartbook.
See also
- Mobile internet device
- Tablet device (disambiguation)
- Ultra-mobile PCUltra-Mobile PCAn ultra-mobile PC is a small form factor version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006. Sony had already made a first attempt in this direction in 2004 with its Vaio U series, which was however only sold in Asia...
- Virtual keyboardVirtual keyboardA virtual keyboard is a software component that allows a user to enter characters. A virtual keyboard can usually be operated with multiple input devices, which may include a touchscreen, an actual keyboard and a computer mouse.- Types :...