5 Reasons Why Qualcomm's Smartbooks Will Outgun Netbooks

Netbooks have ruled the world of entry level computing for the past 18 months or so but could be facing their most formidable opponents, known as Smartbooks, since they appeared on the market in 2007.

Smartbooks are nothing new though, non x86 ultra portable computers like the fantastic 3Com Ergo Audrey or the Palm Foleo have been a common sight for the past decade but Qualcomm-backed Smartbooks could well take over Netbooks. Here are five reasons why.

(1) Smartbooks will be cheaper

The cheapest new laptop on the market, as it stands now, is a smartbook, not a netbook. The EPC MiniBook comes with a 400Mhz CPU backed by a Linux OS and costs only £120. The device which truly launched the Netbook revolution, the XO or OLPC laptop, was a smartbook in essence.

It is likely that Qualcomm's smartbooks will be as cheap, if not cheaper. This is due to the fact that the platform is already a mature one and Qualcomm will be using economies of scale to keep prices down. The company is already using a 45nm line to produce the Snapdragon chips to be used in the smartbooks and in smartphones as well.