Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them?
You may remember a while back when we reported that a German company was taking some folks to task for using the term “smartbook.” The company had a real beef, unlike the Psion folks with “netbook”, as their very name is Smartbook. They even have a line of notebooks called smartbooks.
They took smartbook creator Qualcomm to task to make them stop using the term in Germany. Now it seems they are going international and are warning bloggers to stop using the term in any fashion. Now, last I checked they can’t really do that. But it seems to me the term is not a very good one for those little 3G-connected devices like Qualcomm is promoting, anway.
The best way to fight off these Smartbook folks is to make the term irrelevant, and we can coin a better term at the same time. So what should we call smartbooks? Something catchy, descriptive and better fitting. What do you think? Here’s some suggestions to kick off the conversation:
- ThinkBook
- Communicator
- PocketPal
- WebBook
- WebPad
- Webster
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i bet that this will end up in “arm-based netbook”
iBook? ;-)
Smartbook is a super name.
I bet Qualcomm will pay this outfit for their trademark and than all will be sunshine and lollipops
Probably right, but I do so like the name Webster.
I like your style James. Most of the names you came up with are copyrighted by tiny companies like Nokia or those pesky dictionary people who misspell so many words like colour and aluminium :)
Anyway, the chances of a successful smartbook ever coming to market are so slim that I doubt anyone has to worry about this too much.
How about “ToteBook”
David
How about DumbBook, I bet it hasn’t used.
I am sure it will end up as “ChromeBook” or “GoogleTop”
I’m in for the Webster thingy!
Ultra Mobile NetBook (UMNB)
Cargo Pants Pocket PC (CPPP)
Haha!! Cargo Pants PC LOLZ hahaha!!
How about we call it what we want they can go the way of Kleenex, Spam, and Q-Tips. :)
It wasn’t Psion who owns Smartbook trademark, but a german company called Smartbook Ag, who actually sells/makes/brands their laptop computers….
Uh, yeah, that’s what the first paragraph of JK’s post says :)
So answering the question, I was going to post “Dumbbook”, but someone beat me to it already. But the idea is to pick something that is guaranteed to be “unwanted”.
- StinkBook
- CrapBook
- NeedsNoNameBook
- BlogBook
- LotsOfHotAirBook
Does the name “Folio” do anything?
(should be part of initial posting)
For that matter does the concept “Foleo Mobile Companion” do anything?
Given that these devices should be small enough by design to fit in a larger pocket, I might suggest the term “pocketbook”.
I do admit smartbook does sound sexier though.
I have an idea.
Lets call them “netbooks”, instead of creating a pointless new name for what amounts to a slight feature variation of something that already exists? :-)
When I tag articles that talk about “smartbooks”, I tag them as “netbooks”. I don’t see any point, other than “drinking the coolaid”, in calling them anything else.
Subnetbooks?
IBM has a line of notebooks called Thinkbook and Nokia has a line of mobile devices called Communicator. Both are strong international brands, so sorry – these names are not going fly :(
The term “smartbook” does help to differentiate the fact that it is running an ARM processor (versus x86) & perhaps even a smartphone OS, like Android, but Ubuntu also runs on it. And, what if Microsoft ported Windows 7 to it?
When Intel eventually releases a low power chip for smartphones, it will no doubt be x86-based. Will these Intel-based devices still be called “smartphones”? I think so.
“Tablets” come in all shapes, sizes & utilize different processors & OSes, so why not “netbooks”? The term “netbook” just helps to capture the fact that is is a small, clamshell device, primarily intended for internet access.
“Netbooks” will REALLY begin to live up to the “net”, in the name, when ChromeOS is running on them.
What about Armbook or Armolitebook?
Hmm, like was previously stated all those names are already used too. Though webpad came back with the lowest Google results (94,000.)
I like Webster too, but those darn dictionary people might not like that. Maye we can use another actual name though. Who’s the guy who invented the web?… (I love Google)… Tim Berners-Lee. Ok I think the name should be “Bernerbook.” That term only nets 30,800 Google results. Kind has a futuristic 451 feel to it too.
With the ability to take the place of real book…. And so, Pixel Qi screen are near ready to go…
Why not…
NeoBook !
or
NotBook !
Or for the next wave on the cloud computing…
SURFBOOK…
I feel it would be best if called as ARM based Netbooks
I don’t see the need for book in the term. How about smartcomputer or smartpc?
Whatever happened to Palmtop?