It has been clear for some time that Smartphones and Notebooks were going to give birth to something and while one child has shown up, the other, the Smartbook is just starting to peek out and say "HI". The first real example of this may be the rumored Apple Tablet http://www.macnewsworld.com which appears to have more in common with the iPhone then it does with the MacBook though, if price estimates are correct, it should price out almost exactly between them. So what is a Smartbook and could it be bigger than a Netbook?

Smartbook: The Netbook's Smaller, Sexier, and More Focused Sister

The Idea of a Netbook was a portable device with limited capability that lived off of the web. But, as is often the case, after the first limited products came to market it grew up and became a small Notebook computer. What is interesting is that just like parents who look at an offspring as a perennial child, the technology providers that make the Netbook possible still see it as their originally imagined despite the fact that increasingly, particularly when the things come with NVIDIA Ion Graphics, it has few performance difference, and even some advantages, over a Notebook in the same size class.

A Smartbook is a Netbook sized device with Smartphone internals. It trends cheaper than a Netbook, like Smartphones subsidies are more the rule than the exception, and it is designed to be connected and on all the time. This means that while most Netbooks are in the $300 to $400 range and some, with subsidies, can approach $0. Smartbooks should generally run under $200 with subsidies and an increasingly large percentage will be free with a standard wireless service.

Typically thinner and more power efficient it is also more limited lending itself to a mobile operating system and experience rather than a full OS be it Windows or Linux (the most common on Netbooks).

Smartbooks should run smaller than Netbooks as well both from a screen size and thickness standpoint. While Netbooks are increasingly around an inch thick and with screens between 10 and 12 inches, Smartbooks will likely run about a half an inch thick and have screen sizes between 5 and 10 inches, at least initially.

The Apple Tablet

It appears, at least if the rumors are true (and with Apple this is always iffy) that the Apple tablet is a Smartbook with a keyless or optional keyboard configuration. It will perform like a large iPod Touch and have optional cell phone capability; at least that was the speculation at Interop this week. I'm guessing that in that last case a Bluetooth headset will be a requirement otherwise you're likely to knock yourself out with the phone.

With this possibly being the first major brand Smartbook on the Market Apple has the unique opportunity to potentially define the solution and that could make it interesting for those that come after.

The interesting question to watch get answered is whether the market will see this as something compelling or a tweener product between Smartphones and Netbooks? Apple is one of the few companies that could market this at a level to avoid the tweener problem and if they are successful they could establish this as a real class.

Wrapping Up:

Behind the scenes this puts the Arm vendors, particularly Qualcomm and Marvell, directly in opposition with Intel and its Atom part. This will not be a battle that will be decided quickly or easily. However I can see a lot that is compelling about a small device with a keyboard that is always on and always connected and still large enough for an adult's hand. Of course just getting an iPhone like device WITH a keyboard would be a big step for someone like me who can't stand virtual keyboards. In the end though this is the beginning of something that could be bigger than Netbooks or Smartphones so hang on to your seats as we appear to be entering yet another period of massive change.