Will Qualcomm Introduce Rival To Ultrabook?

A couple of years ago, Qualcomm, which builds chipsets, wireless power solutions and e-ink screens amongst other things, took the netbook form factor, refined it and rebadged it as the smartbook.

The end product was supposed to be better than cheap-and-cheerful netbooks but then tablets arrived in 2010 and the rest is history. Qualcomm decided to kill it illico presto and the whole concept has been lying in limbo.

But things could change with the arrival in force of the Ultrabooks, Intel's posher version of the netbook and a segment that was created almost certainly to ride on the coattails of the Apple Macbook Air range.

There's also the impending arrival of Windows 8 for ARM at the beginning of the year which could change the whole dynamics of the world of tech.

The first smartbook device came with Google's Android OS and a single core Snapdragon SoC clocked at 1GHz (and we fondly remember the Toshiba AC-100). Next year's smartbook (or ultrabook) will almost certainly come with a dual core SoC clocked well above 1GHz with Windows 8 or Ice Cream Sandwich.

Swapping Intel hardware for Qualcomm parts for ODMs is likely to be easier given that the rest of the components will still remain the same but the prices will drop down significantly. Adopting Qualcomm's part also comes with a number of inherent advantages like improved battery life and thermal properties, cheaper bill of material and significantly enhanced integration.