Smartphones and Netbooks Share DNA, but There’s a Missing Gene
We’ve talked time and again about how functional you can be with a smartphone or if it can be a computer replacement. And when you want a bigger screen, desktop software functionality or need to type more than 10 words at at time, we often turn to netbooks. In ways I hadn’t thought of, the two are closer than kissing cousins, says Stacey Higginbotham. She’s referencing an EE Times article that compares the cost and complexity in each of the two device classes.
It never occurred to me to examine the integrated circuit footprint inside a smartphone and a netbook, but that’s what EE Times does. Their example above shows rising complexity in smartphones as costs of traditional computing decrease. In a sense, we’ve seen this trend for the past few years, but I’d equate it to more capable smartphones approaching acceptable and usable levels of computing.
This quote from the EE Times piece offers an interesting conclusion, but I think it’s missing a key point:
“Netbooks and smart phones occupy adjacent niches, but they will not truly compete head-to-head until the form- factor differential and the discrepancies in power consumption are reduced or eliminated.”
I don’t disagree on the form factor challenges; I’m not sure I want a much bigger smartphone, nor do I want a smaller netbook. I’m on board with the power efficiency bit as well: My ARM-powered smartphone easily gets me through a day, but x86 netbooks aren’t there yet. Both are good points. But what about applications and software?
The two device classes run very different types of software: On a smartphone you’re hard-pressed to compete with similar functionality on a netbook. Don’t get me wrong, as there are many very capable applications in the smartphone world. If there weren’t, do you really think that some of you would be spending more than $200 on smartphone software? But there’s still a large gap between applications on the two devices. It is shrinking, but it’s far from closing. Unless EE Times is envisioning that we’ll run everything through cloud applications, I think they’ve overlooked software as the missing gene in the shared DNA between smartphones and netbooks.
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Kevin you are mis-stating the figures. This is very misleading and really should be fixed. It is serious. I know other sites do it but a knowledgeable one like yours should not.
The i-phone DOES NOT COST $200. You have not factored in the price of the contract. An ebay completed listings search reveals an unlocked iphone 3G costs >$500.
I will give iphone for free if you sign a contract to pay me $50 per month for two years. That does not mean an i-phone is free.
If you can buy A plus B for $x+y that does not mean A costs $x. It’s just incorrect.
In such a case you should find out how to get A by itself and state the price, or else state “the price of A together with B is…”. Saying A costs $x does not correspond to any mathematical or economic fact.
I’m sorry, I can’t delete my message. You were referring to the material cost quite correctly, not the price. I should have read the post more carefully. My mistake.
Markups on smartphones are awfully large.
Kevin:
The missing DNA is the way the phone guys and the netbooks think about their business.
1. The phone guys see the discounted hardware + monthly services model and the netbooks see themselves as making money on one time sales (hardware/software). If the netbook ecosystem facilitate subscription billing for software and services (even if it the normal stuff we install) it would happen.
The other difference is that the PC manufactures don’t think experience.
The iphone showed the power of experience. It changed the way people think of the product and service. And were willing to pay for the pleasure of using the devcie. Now the entire smartphone industry is on that page.
The netbook guys still think they are selling handicapped notebooks.
Technically, some phones — Android based ones so far, more to come — CAN run full linux-desktop software. It’s just not the best experience, but from playing around on my N810 (not a phone, but within the capabilities of one), I can say it is very possible but not necessarily desirable to do on a day to day basis. The option is nice to have, though.
should i need to point towards celio again?
http://www.celiocorp.com/product/
on the software part, that only comes into play if one is hell bent on sticking with windows…
imo, microsofts reluctance to make available a simple way to transition to some other cpu platform is what keeps intel and amd in biz.
Interesting comparison using IC die size – it doesnt tell the entire story though. As semiconductor process evolves a smaller die will pack more transistors/functionality. This should also theoretically lead to better power consumption.
However, a finer process has more leakage ( sleep mode power consumption ) – which is where most mobile processors should be spending their time. So processors targeted for the mobile market may actually be based on a semiconductor process that is not as fine – leading to a bloated die size.
dont forget that some designs turn of unused parts rather then just sleep them…
no leakage if there is no current flowing, right?