Another fad in the making
According to a report by ABI Research, smartbooks are the new
black and they could seize a rather significant foothold in the market
over the next few years.
Analysts expect as many as 163 million smartbooks to ship worldwide in
2015. It sounds like a rather optimistic projection, especially
considering the fact that smarbooks can't run desktop versions of
Windows and that they will have to compete with tablets, e-book readers
and netbooks, which are no longer aimed at niche markets but at the
average consumer.
ABI Research senior Analyst Jeff Orr said that the defining
characteristic of all smartbooks, as categorized in the research, is
that they won't be based on x86 processors. " "ABI Research defines a
smartbook as
a low-powered device running a mobile operating system that is always
connected, either via Wi-Fi or using cellular or mobile broadband,"
said Orr.
Orr points out that vendors should avoid creating separate market
categories with new names and that they should try to compete in
established categories. In other words, they shouldn't confuse
consumers. "We believe the best opportunity in this ultra-mobile
device market lies in new form-factors," said Orr.
ABI Research believes sub-$200 smartbooks have the biggest chance of success.