Qualcomm planning smartbook assault

Shows off Android-powered prototype from Quanta

20 November 2009 16:13 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Qualcomm has been showing off a bevy of devices called Smartbooks that the company thinks could be poised to swallow up the netbook market by outmanoeuvring them in their core strengths - the small-and-light and always-on-connectivity arenas.

The model pictured above and below is an Android-equipped device from Taiwanese manufacturers Quanta. It's packing a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm which means that it has smartphone-esque features and connectivity, but the power of a low-end notebook.

Qualcomm is betting on 3G connectivity within netbooks becoming as ubiquitous as Wi-Fi. The resulting smartbooks will be more portable, more connected and cheaper than the traditional netbook, and elbow them out of the market.

The company also demonstrated a wireless charging pad for gadgets, and a C-motech Mangrove tablet computer running Windows Mobile 6.5 on a Snapdragon processor. Pics of those can be found on the images tab above.