Asus will launch an ARM-powered smartbook in the first quarter of 2010, as it looks to replicate its Eee PC success.
The company showed off a prototype of the laptop at Computex back in June, running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform – which licenses ARM’s processor design – and Android.
The laptop provoked a lot of excitement among the tech media, but Asus quickly went cold on the idea, claiming “this project is not a priority because our engineering resources are limited”, and that there’s “no clear market for smartbooks”.
However, it appears the bloom is back on the rose, with Asus chief executive Jerry Shen claiming smartbooks will be the company’s “secret weapon” and predicting they will take the company to an “Eee PC-like peak”.
Most excitingly he’s quoting a potential price of 6,000 Taiwanese dollars, which comes to around £112 at the current exchange rate.
If the mystery laptop does turn out to be Snapdragon based, it could significantly alter the way we view the netbook category. Qualcomm claims the 1.3GHz ARM chipset uses only 10 milliwatts in standby, and can comfortably play 720p high-definition video.
It could, in fact, be the same prototype netbook ARM showed to PC Pro earlier this week.
Author: Stuart Turton
