Smartbooks are widely anticipated to be flavour of the month at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with a major new launch planned by computer chip-maker Freescale Semiconductor.
The latter part of 2009 saw much hype surrounding the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle reader, and Apple Inc was quick to throw its hat into the ring, announcing that it had a rival product in development, and was expecting to make a firm announcement early in the new year.
Freescale is believed to be working on a seven-inch touchscreen design with Wi-Fi and 3G capability, according to reports from Reuters.
It has also supplied the chips used in the Kindle, and in a number of sat-nav systems.
As it produces the ‘heart’ of these devices in-house, it is hoping to be able to compete keenly with other newcomers looking to launch products to bridge the gap between PCs and smartphones.
When initially announced, Freescale said it was looking to price its reader at under US$200 (less than GBP125). It has not yet announced any deals with retailers for selling the devices, but has widely indicated that prototypes would be on show in Las Vegas, with sales expected to start in the summer.
Henri Richard, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Freescale, called a smartbook tablet the “missing link” between PCs and smartphones.
“The PC has been stale in terms of its ability to innovate. Smartphones have been making progress … but they have limitations,” he told Reuters.
Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp are also expected to unveil smartbooks based on their chips at CES.
The devices will seek to break Intel Corp’s stranglehold on the market for low-cost PCs. Intel’s Atom processor dominates the fast-growing netbook market.
Meanwhile, Amazon, which produces and markets the Kindle mobile reader, has come under fire for hyping sales of the Kindle, but failing to back up its claims with any solid sales figures. It announced late in 2009 that it had become the biggest-selling gift item in the company’s history, but the same press release was bereft of figures to quantify its success. Instead, it seemed to be nothing more than a sales pitch, emphasising instead the number of book titles now available to Kindle users.
And only halfway through December, Amazon claimed that Kindle sales had already surpassed those of any previous month – but again provided no figures to support its assertion.