SmartBook

There's been no shortage of new mobile computer designs being shown off at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, this week. For established categories such as laptops and their pared-down alter ego the netbook, the advances are largely predictable: thinner, lighter and more powerful. But grappling for attention in the thronged conference calls, several computer makers have been loudly proclaiming that what consumers really need is a new class of device altogether: the smartbook.

The smartbook, its promoters suggest, will fill a gap in the market between smartphones and netbooks. But does such a gap exist?

The smartbook makers are betting that netbooks – small laptops optimised for mobile internet browsing – are still too large and too slow to boot up for users to carry everywhere they go, whereas existing smartphones are too small to run rich media satisfactorily and not powerful enough for serious applications.

However, judging by the Cambrian explosion of devices tagged as smartbooks at CES, there is little agreement about what constitutes such a device.

The form factors range from the familiar – swivel-screen netbooks and over-sized cellphones – to the novel, such as a dual-screen device from Virginia-based Entourage, which combines a touch-sensitive e-reader with a multi-touch netbook-style screen.