Expect lots of Smartbooks in coming months

Many manufacturers, including Acer, Foxconn, Compal, Pegatron and Inventec will start shipping ARM-based smartbooks. The new ARM-based smartbooks will be smaller in size, and a bit cheaper, contrary to Atom powered netbook. But obviously they won’t be as good, and also won’t be able to run a proper version of Windows. You will stuck with Linux or Win CE, and may see Android in few of them, too.

Asustek, the second biggest netbook maker, is looking to launch its smartbooks later in November or December. Reason? They believe that therer is not enough demand for such devices and would rather wait for the feedbacks of this new product class.

That said, the main advantage of these netbooks will be that it will be very compact. The first models are expected to have 8.9-inch displays and will cost around $200.