Communication or productivity?
The key thing Qualcomm is trying to do with its championing of the smartbook category is to get people to think of these devices, not in terms of form factor (size and shape) but in terms of usage model.
As we wrote immediately after the Open Mobile Summit, two handed devices (as opposed to smartphones), that have to be carried in a bag, can be subdivided into those used primarily for communication and those used mainly for productivity.
If what you mainly want to do is send and receive emails, browse the net and share your every waking thought with a bizarrely attentive world, then your priorities are portability and convenience. If you need to write long pieces, or create PowerPoint presentations, or edit video, etc, you will be prepared to sacrifice some portability and battery life in order to get a bigger screen and faster processor.
It's therefore possible that the two-handed mobile device market will segment into smartbooks, dominated by Qualcomm and notebooks, where Intel will continue to reign supreme. Today's typical netbook users will have to decide on which side of the communication/productivity divide they reside, or maybe buy both.
"What we're trying to encourage the industry to do is to see these as consumer communications as opposed to business productivity devices," said Timmons. Whether or not the industry is buying that message remains to be seen, but a lot of OEMs seem to be jumping on the Snapdragon bandwagon already.
