CES 2010: ARMdroid Smartbooks Dominate Wintel's Netbooks

While new Atom-based Windows netbooks did show up at CES 2010, the Wintel mobile PC platform so omnipresent only a year ago, got way overshadowed this time around in a blitz of announcements around Linux-based smartbooks, e-readers, and tablets running on ARM processors.

Some of the ARM-enabled netbooks on display, such as Lenovo's Skylight (pictured above), are outfitted with Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. 

Plastic Logic's Que e-reader uses ARM processors from Marvell. Freescale, another ARM chipmaker, rolled out a reference platform for a sub-$200 tablets, also during the 2010 show.

Moreover, Nvidia showed five tablets based on its ARM-based Tegra chips, varying in form factor and OS among vendors. ICD Vega's Tegra tablet runs Android, whereas Foxconn's runs a custom Linux distribution, for instance.

But meanwhile, LG unveiled its first ever netbook, choosing Intel's Atom and Microsoft's Windows XP as the underpinnings.

LG is also giving lots of thought to smartbooks and mobile gadgets in other shapes and sizes, said LG VP John Taylor, speaking with Betanews at CES 2010. 

"There are going to be lots of different mobile devices, and they'll differ in size as well as [level of] Internet access," he predicted. "But right now, Windows netbooks are where the customers are, and netbooks are a great launch pad for LG," Betanews was told.

Fujitsu also kept up the Windows tradition with both its third-generation netbook and fourth-generation ultra-mobile PC (UMPC). Both represent a move from XP to Windows 7, and both run on Intel's Atom, said Paul Moore, senior director of product management for notebooks and tablet PCs, in an interview at CES.

Atom turned up in other places aside from netbooks, too. AOC, a major computer monitor OEM nows expanding into the PC and e-reader spaces, showed an all-in-one PC running on Atom (below).

But with its second all-in-one PC, the M222T, AOC will replace Atom with Intel's faster dual-core Core 2 CPU using the new Socket P, originally intended for mobile form factors, noted Jimmy Shih, director of business development for AOC's CE division.

On the ARM side, Plastic Logic's entry into the suddenly crowded e-reader market carries a hefty price tag of up to around $800. But the Que uses a plastic rather than a glass screen for "unbreakability," contended Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta, speaking with Betanews during the Showstoppers press event. Plastic Logic's e-reader is also specifically designed as a "business e-reader," with support for formats such as Windows PowerPoint, he elaborated.