"Smartbooks" Latest to Join Crowded Computer Market
Companies are gambling that they can shake up the portable-computer market plan to lay some cards on the table in Las Vegas next week.
The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show will be a coming-out party for a new breed of ultra-small laptops that act more like smart phones–designed to be always on and connected to the Internet via 3G cellular networks, ready to call up a Web page or post an update on Twitter.
Promoters of the new devices have been pushing the term “smartbooks,” partly to distinguish them from the low-end portables called netbooks that have been the hottest thing in the PC industry over the past two years.
