As you may be aware, netbooks started out as connected, notebook-like products that were very cheap, did very little, and had high return rates. Thankfully, they quickly evolved into cheap notebooks and in certain ways some of them (especially the ones with NVIDIA Ion graphics) outperformed their much more expensive notebook competitors. It just goes to show that the market was looking for something different and in 2010 two competing ideas will come forward to provide more category differentiation still. First is the tablet, which is being spearheaded by Apple and led to market by offerings like those from the undermarketed Archos and the troubled JooJoo. Second is the “smartbook,” which appears to be favored by the other PC OEMs, cell phone companies and wireless carriers. Let’s talk about this impending battle.
Smart-Tablet: Crippled or Visionary?
It is often kind of funny to see Steve Jobs do his hypocritical dance. He didn’t like video on MP3 players until he sold the video iPod, didn’t like multi-button mice until the Mighty Mouse, and thought Intel processors sucked until he used them. He has also been outspoken about how stupid tablet computers were because, OMG, you needed a keyboard until he brought out the iPhone and iPod touch, both of which are mini-tablets without a keyboard. He also appears to think screen touch is stupid, but making a touch mouse, multi-touch pad, and the coming Apple Touch Pad is brilliant. Wait until touchscreens get cheaper for laptops.
However, the big question is was he right? Do we really need a keyboard in a small laptop-like device or can we live on touchscreens much like we do with the other Apple tablet-like products? Tablets haven’t historically done that well, but then phones like the iPhone didn’t sell well either until Apple built one.
Pixel Qi 3Qi
If you think of this device as more of a big iPhone or iPod touch which allows you to interact with content, provides a vastly better web browsing experience, and is a great platform for a new class of entertainment and short communications applications (like Twitter or Facebook on steroids) this could be the ticket to greatness and the hot product for 2010. Apple does these things almost like clockwork and this could be one heck of a kick-ass product class.
Still, I think it needs a better reading experience to hit its potential, so that it covers both the eBook and multimedia space, and while there is such a display coming to market in the Pixel Qi, it doesn’t look like Apple will be initially getting it. (In fact, only Acer seems to be playing with it at the moment.) So it likely will be great, but it may not be Apple who has the coolest product.
love CES 3d tvs and all
competition, CES will tell us!
I'll call this – Tablets will win. Why? Because shoe-horning contemporary computing into a smart-book is nonsense. Tiny PC unit sales growth indicates that even netbooks have been a novelty & a dangerous distraction for manufacturers. Though their advocates will keep buying a new one every 18-months (as is required) and still insist they're not a false economy even the buying public aren't so easily fooled twice.No, in order to make small work the whole mode of operation needs to be re-invented – completely. One company is doing this, the other is tacking on touch to their main UI. Will the tablet work for business? That depends entirely on the quality of the design of the software & (at last) people will be making purchasing decisions based on this.Then again if you can't get your head around the reason Steve Jobs added extra mouse buttons, switched to intel & added a screen to the iPod you probably won't get this either.McDave
My money is on the tablets: Why tablets will be huge: media convergence.
Misleading… Sounds like you just don't like flash. I assume you'll say something about how great silverlight is (except, oops, it has no mobile presence).You can search for anything and get results. Do a search for MacBook hardware problem or IPhone hardware problem.Adobe is the only vendor targeting about every mobile device and I don't have nor have I seen issues with flash on my iMac, MacBoook, Win 7 Acer netbook, or HP laptop with Win 7.If you don't like it – fine, we get that from all of your posts. We get what you're saying and disagree. Move on.
Count yourself lucky!Use the Google and search for “flash crash safari” have fun!
You need to clam down and stop being a Flash fanboy. I have plenty of FACTS you want me to send you my Safari crash logs? Why are there are so many disable flash browser plug-ins? I did and do cite facts based upon my experience on Flash under Mac OS X, even pointing out I have no knowledge of other platforms, you just spew Flash fanboy rhetoric. THE FACT is Flash is the #1, let me say that AGAIN, the #1 cause of browser crash issues on the Mac. Flash videos will get your Core2Duo MacBook Pro running fans high speed in no time. YOU obviously would rather defend Flash at the expense of the primary purpose of the iPhone. I on the other hand need a phone NOT a flash player so the former will always be my priority. Your milage my vary!
Yup, me too. I could totally take an ereader on the plane with my mp3 player, and leave my laptop in the bag.
Good point Stephanie. I use my MacBook Air for work and would use the Tablet for entertainment purposes too. I see them both as having completely different purposes.
My comment is that I will be racing to Apple to get that tablet because I'm an avid reader and will put my kindle to rest that very day. I will also purchase the next release of the Air or MacBookPro for my writing tasks. I see one of these as entertainment related (the tablet) and the other as more work-related.(the Air or MacBookPro). It's as simple as that. I will not buy anything other than Apple products. I am a convert from PC and will never go back. I am also a stockholder in Apple. A true believer.
This Tablet from Sports Illustrated seems like the future to me:http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/a-look-a…Take that and add an on-screen keyboard and you should be all set. Hopefully Apple will get something like this right in 2010.The JooJoo AKA Crunchpad is a joke IMO. It will never see the light of day, and it's OS is way too basic.
I think you are a little paranoid friend. I have a MacBook and do not have this problem. Flash is on 90% of the sites out there in one capacity or another. Sounds like an Apple problem if anything. Netbooks that run Windows do not have this CPU problem either.
See my comment below. Get your facts straight. Rob is dead on.
Sascha,Sorry man, but YOU better get your facts straight. The JooJoo is a tablet, not a smartbook. There is a distinct difference. Between Netbooks, Smartbooks, and Tabletshttp://www.liliputing.com/2009/05/intel-says-ne…“But according to Intel marketing chief Sean Maloney, there’s another method to the madness: return rates for netbooks had been as high as 30% in some retail channels — the ones where computer sellers didn’t make the limitations of netbooks clear to customers before they shelled out their hard earned cash.”Sorry Sascha, remind me not to listen to your predictions. :(
WOW thats cool….PITY ITS NOT A “Pixel Qi 3Qi”Thats a XO-2 from OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)How hard is it to do alittle research.EPIC FAILYou should rename your website to DIGITALTARDS
Rob no matter what you are writing about the mobile computing market, you are just not getting it… again, it is a myth that netbooks have high return rates and it's also a myth that the NVIDIA Ion Subnotebooks that are still using the Intel Atom are are selling in high numbers. Why not doing a research before writing anything like this? between 30 and 35 Million netbooks got sold in 2009… anymore questions?you also don't understand the smartbook concept, it's not a competitor for any tablet that might come to the market and you are not even naming the good ones… archos? joojoo? gimme a break! Apple isn't spearheading any tablet market, this market is nearly a decade old!By the way talking about Pixel Qi, again you could have just contact Mary Lou and ask her why they are using an Acer netbook for it and why they also have tons of others to test their technology. You could have done a simple Google research and you would know that Pixel Qi will make the displays for an upcoming tablet. They even introduce this in january:http://www.netbooknews.com/1586/netbook-market-…yup, that's me and you can be sure that these predictions will come true. ;)
The ONLY time the cooling fans in my MacBook Pro EVER run is when there's Flash on a website. I could be encoding a DVD, playing a PowerPoint, and ripping a movie for my iPhone all at the same time and the fans will stay silent — until Safari gets a pop-up Flash ad and they roar to life. Flash is crap, it is yesterday's technology, and it's time that it was retired for something better (HTML-5?). Apple works night-and-day to build cooler-running, more power-efficient computers and yet they're constantly bogged-down with this antiquated legacy software. It's like driving a Ferrari with the brakes stuck on.
I call B.S. on that. Flash is on every other phone out there. The new Sports Illustrated Tablet uses Adobe and it works fine. The reason why you dont see flash on the iPhone is because of politics between Apple and Adboe, not because flash is a hog. 70% of the banner ads you see on the web use flash and they are not a resource hog. Get your facts straight.
Apple's flash problem? It's ADOBE'S flash problem. Flash is a CPU hog and dog on any platform and the #1 cause of Safari crashes or issues. No idea what the figures are on other platforms. People put up with flash and flash laden web sites of ads etc., on their computer, they won't on their phone if it kills the battery or causes the phone to need to be rebooted. If Adobe can't get it right on the Mac after all these years what makes you think thy can on the iPhone a subset of OS X and the same browser foundation. If anything the YouTube application on the iPhone shows how to do video right on a handheld battery device.
I have a feeling that Smartbooks or tablets will overtake eReaders. Who would not want a color display, or something that can play movies etc. I just think that battery life will be a huge issue.Perhaps if they use OLED displays, iy may help this problem.
Umm he was pretty close on a couple of those. Years ago, Apple was all but bankrupt.As an analyst, they are never 100% right. But when you see them quoted and used for work as much as Rob is, you are likely to see some wrong predictions. He is the most quoted analyst in the industry. If he wasn't so good, he would not have been Fellow at Forrester Research or an advisor to people like IBM, HP etc. Companies like that would not bet millions on someone if they were wrong all the time.
Maybe the keyboard could be on the screen, when needed only.But the feel should come from something too. Hmm. Fingers are good for pointing, evolution shows that. Nails are handy for accurate pointing too. Or a pointing pen.No keyboard if possible, but that is difficult.
I've always wondered how the smartbooks would fair against the tablets – thanks a lot for taking a look in to this – definitely some interesting points to consider. I think though it may be too early since a lot of tablets and smartbooks are still a part of a smaller market than say smartphones. But if I could suggest, please write a follow up article, I'd like to see what you find – also I found you via http://www.smartbook.asia
I don't trust Rob Enderle for digital trends.He predicted the demise of Apple, and the company grew more than 1000%.He predicted SCO would win a battle against Linux — SCO lost and is bankrupt.He predicted that Vista would be a hit, and Sony would kill Blu-ray. Wrong, wrong.With regard to the smartbooks and tablets… well, I think this time he can be right. But this is a pretty obvious trend for anyone in the industry.
Dude no way man that is just WAY too cool!RThttp://www.anonymous-web.cz.tc
Tablets look pretty cool…they'd be my choice.chat with singles near you