Smartbook, finally a big enough screen
Enough blogging doom and gloom. There’s a lot of exciting things happening in the mobile space these days. Today, I heard that Qualcomm, the chip vendor behind the current set of HTC Android phones, is showing off a new version of ASUS’s Eee PC using their Snapdragon chipset. The chip is a 1Ghz ARM based SOC that supports 3D graphics and 720p video decode. It has a 10″ touchscreen that likely shows the full 720p resolution. And it’s small since the Qualcomm chip doesn’t need a fan.
The most interesting part of this machine is the new category that Qualcomm is trying to create, the “smartbook”. Not only is this machine a smaller netbook, it’s also a bigger smartphone with all the 3G, CDMA, etc. goodness. And it runs most smartphone operating systems, including Android.
I need to play with the Android emulator set up to see how well it looks on a WXGA screen. But you can bet the web browser will be a more pleasant experience. But I wonder if the other apps have planned on being that large.
Anyway, this is exactly the device category I’ve been waiting for. The smartbook video over at Qualcomm shows some of the exciting possibilities that this platform can support. It’s the ultimate in connectivity and user experience, and I’m sure other vendors are going to catch on.