IF you've got a car and a bicycle, do you need a motorcycle too? Wireless carriers are betting that you do. They're making a big push this year for the motorcycles of the gadget world: devices that are bigger than a phone but smaller than a laptop. The most famous entrant in the category is Apple Inc.'s iPad, which comes out next month. But many other manufacturers are crowding into the niche, and were planning to do so even before Apple's announcement in January. Some of them are making keyboard-less “tablet” computers in the vein of the iPad. Others are making small laptop-like things known as “smartbooks” that will sell for a few hundred dollars. Hewlett-Packard Co. showed its first smartbook this week in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, the world's largest cell phone trade show. At first glance, HP's Compaq AirLife 100 looks just like a netbook – a small laptop – but the inner workings are quite different. Rather than using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software, the smartbook runs Android, which Google Inc. created for mobile devices and gives away for free. Rather than using a computer processor from Intel Corp. or Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the AirLife uses a chip from Qualcomm Inc. that has cell phone heritage. The AirLife works somewhat like a cell phone as well: It's ready to use as soon as you flip the lid open. Like a phone, it receives your e-mail even when it's in standby mode with the lid closed. Because the Qualcomm chip uses a lot less power than a PC chip, HP says the AirLife can be used for 12 hours between charging. Dell Inc. is using the same technology – Android software running on a Qualcomm chip – for a tablet computer with a touch screen that is 5 inches (12.5 centimeters) on the diagonal. Freescale Semiconductor Inc. was at the show to demonstrate the types of “in-between” devices that can be made using its chips, including a prototype tablet that slides into a docking station with a keyboard. Chip maker Nvidia Corp. brought six tablets and two smartbooks running its chips. The world's largest maker of PC processors, Intel Corp., doesn't want to be left out of the new market either. At the show, OpenPeak Inc., a maker of “white label” devices that are rebranded by other companies, showed off a 7-inch (17.5-centimeter) tablet computer running Intel's new “Moorestown” chip. It's expected to ship in the second half of the year. While there will be a lot of hardware to choose from, the software for smartbooks and tablets needs work. The PC version of Windows doesn't work on cell phone-style chips, and in any case, isn't designed for small screens. So manufacturers are mostly turning to Android. But Google didn't intend Android to run on screens that are bigger than cell phones. Google doesn't allow Android's online library of applications to be accessed from smartbooks because it fears the applications won't work well on large screens. NPD analyst Ross Rubin noted that smartbooks could struggle because it's not clear that consumers will take to devices that look like laptops but don't run Windows. The first generation of netbooks ran the Linux operating system, and the category didn't really take off until they started running Windows. And while smartbooks will be cheap because they'll be subsidized by wireless carriers, the carriers will be selling Windows-based netbooks as well, Rubin said. People will have to be enticed to carry a gadget in addition to their cell phone. The concept is reminiscent of “personal digital assistants.” They never became mainstream - until their functions were combined with the phone to create the “smart” phone.
