Netbooks, UMPCs and Smartbooks - the Future of Mobile Computing?

Computex always provides a popular forum for companies to highlight their latest, greatest offerings. This year, despite being forecast to together account for only 19% of the notebook PCs shipped in 2009 (according to current PC research from IMS), the most talked about subjects are netbooks and UMPCs.

In many electronics industries, the device convergence phenomenon is resulting in users increasingly utilising one main device to undertake multiple use cases and satisfy a variety of requirements. One such example is the rise of the smartphone, which as well as providing the traditional cellular capabilities, now offers increasingly higher megapixel cameras, music playback functionality and removable storage to enable more and more multimedia file storage.

In contrast, the mobile computing industry appears to be aiming to increase the number of devices per user, segmenting the market based on highly specific use cases and developing new device categories to meet those needs. One such example of this is 'Smartbooks', a relatively new sub-category of notebook PCs aimed not at replacing a user's primary notebook, but as a supplementary device ideal for those who often take short trips and don't want to take their main notebooks.

Author of an upcoming IMS report forecasting connectivity in different types of notebook PCs, Lisa Arrowsmith explains, "historically there were only two clear segments of notebook PC users - consumer and business customers. Increasingly we are now seeing the emergence of highly concentrated user segments, resulting in the development of new device categories, each optimised with a portfolio of wireless technologies aimed at satisfying a different set of needs".

Posted to the site on 8th June 2009