TECHNOLOGY | Dec 29, 2009
Companies gambling that they can shake up the portable-computer market plan to lay some cards on the table in Las Vegas next week. The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show will be a coming-out party for a new breed of ultra-small laptops that act more like smart phones—designed to be always on and connected to the Internet via 3G cellular networks, ready to call up a Web page or post an update on Twitter.

Smartbooks are expected to carry lower prices than netbooks—which can be found for as little as $250 these days. Most smartbooks are also being designed to have built-in cellular connections, so they are more likely to be sold at subsidized prices by cellular carriers along with data plans. Although smartbooks will carry lower price tags, backers say they could generate higher profit margins for manufacturers because of savings on chips and operating systems.

The most vocal proponents of smartbooks, indeed, are makers of chips for cellphones that are angling for a new market. They include Qualcomm Inc., Nvidia Corp., Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and Marvell Technology Group Ltd.—which license microprocessor designs from ARM Holdings PLC and combine it with their own technology.

Smartbook supporters also say that critics underestimate the appeal of a device that is always on and connected. A greater proportion of the forthcoming devices are expected to come with built-in 3G networking than netbooks; short-range Wi-Fi connections are expected to be common to both.

So email is more likely to be pushed automatically to smartbooks rather than requiring users to log on to the Internet and fetch messages. Similarly, calling up movie times, weather forecasts and posting to Twitter and Facebook will be a matter of seconds, executives in the smartbook camp

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