ASUS Smartbook Confirmed for 2010 — Around $180
The smartbook has been a category of devices that has been slow to appear since Qualcomm started pushing it earlier this year. The smartbook is basically the result of putting smartphone capability into a highly mobile notebook form. The idea is to have a highly mobile device with ubiquitous connectivity, at a price even cheaper than that of netbooks. The smartbook will have a smartphone processor, like the Snapdragon, and an OS optimized for light computing. Kevin recently wondered when the smartbooks would appear, and it turns out he might not have much longer to wait.
ASUS, creator of the EEE PC and thus the netbook craze, had embraced producing a smartbook at one time, only to back off from the possibility in subsequent statements. CEO Jerry Shen has ended the speculation, saying that the Taiwanese company will produce a smartbook for release in the first quarter of 2010, for a price equivalent to about $180.
The statement came during an investor conference in Taiwan, and Shen claimed that the ASUS smartbook device could be the “secret weapon” that helps ASUS recreate the peak reached with the original EEE PC release. ASUS had demonstrated a branded smartbook earlier this year at CompuTex (pictured right), but the device quickly disappeared from view and hasn’t been seen again.
Is it just me, or is the whole Netbook and especially now Smartbook move starting to look like the old Jupiter class CE devices? I have one or two still kicking around collecting dust: NEC MobilePro, etc.
They are and I am glad about that. I carried my Mobilepro everywhere.
I only stopped using it because I could not sync it to Vista. If I can use a smartbook with my Exchange server account, I’ll buy one the moment they are available.
What’s old is new again – just like the fashion! Bring back the Miami Vice jackets and monster shoulder pads! LOL
I actually stopped using my PDAs and HPCs because they could not do “quite enough” for the heavy stuff, and were overkill for the easy tasks. I couldn’t quite get the balance. Ah well… I’d be interested to see how this all turns out.
Zoot suits
Not sure how something like this would fit in considering that a HTC TP2 runs $300+ and a Toshiba netbook is $399. Maybe the TP2 is the odd one out if Apple can sell the iPhone for $99.
$180 does seem to be a realistic price though. I seriously think that a top-of-the-line smartphone should not cost more than $200 in today’s market. I would still rather go with the netbook and smartphone combo though, this thing seems too large to be pocketable and underpowered to be truly productive. Then again I haven’t sat down with one yet to try.
I m curious what people’s expectations are for these smartbooks. Everybody was so excited when netbooks came out and soon there after, blogs started to talk about what netbooks couldn’t do.
I’m looking for a smartbook to fully interact with my Exchange Account email and PIM functions), basic word processing, basic spreadsheet, basic powerpoint, websurfing with flash (Hulu, youtube) and facebook type social networking.
Instant on and all day battery life are very much wanted. I want 3G, but could live with wifi only.
Are my expections unrealistic?
No, in fact they are bare minimum if there devices are to be worth $180.
I thought these smartbooks looked like the old Jornada 720s? This thing looks just like a netbook.
They couldn’t sell them if they looked differently than notebooks. End of Q1 is a lot of time since they shown the 1st test samples, they are prob. waiting for Flash 10.1 and maybe even Chrome OS. Still i will install Debian or Angstrom on them.
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