Prior to CES 2009, the line separating smartphones, netbooks, and notebooks was fairly clear. If you said Intel Atom, immediately one would think of a netbook. But the lines are beginning to blur. Companies like Hewlett Packard want to manufacture netbooks with notebook-like display sizes; AMD’s Yukon platform aims for the white space between netbooks and notebooks; and, select smartphones and mobile internet devices are nearly as powerful as netbooks.
The latest niche-smashing arrival: Marvell’s 1 GHz PXA168 processor. Not quite as quick as slower Atom processors, the new Marvell will bring a whole new level of functionality to smartphones (possibly ASUS’ Android phone coming later this year) and MID’s. Devices clocking 1 GHz would be able to support a faster internet experience, HD video, Flash content and other features a slower processor wouldn’t. The PXA168 could even be potentially used in extremely low-cost, basic netbooks.