We wouldn’t run a blog called The Smartbook Blog if we didn’t think there was a huge future in affordable, portable and connected computing – but even we struggle to see quite this level of dominance…

Speaking to PC Pro, ARM CEO Warren East has outlined the company’s radical vision of the future PC market in an interesting interview.

“Although netbooks are small today – maybe 10% of the PC market at most – we believe over the next several years that could completely change around and that could be 90% of the PC market,” said …

Maybe the analysts at Needham should have been paying closer attention to the presentation. Maybe they were overwhelmed by Steve Jobs and all the razzle-dazzle. Whatever the reason, upon closer scrutiny, the analyst firm has halved its initial sales estimates for Apple’s iPad to two million in fiscal 2010.

The firm says it reassessed its original estimate after reviewing Apple’s presentation, and determined that iPad’s lack of Flash support and lack of multi-tasking capabilities would affect its potential. Needham expects Apple to sell about six million iPads in fiscal 2011.

Other analysts expect Apple to sell …

ARM Holdings’ recent deal with Giesecke & Devrient to develop a multi-layer security architecture may sound like a pact with little impact on smartbook realms. After all, ARM already offers its Trustzone security environment to go from tamper-proof circuits at the physical layer to IPsec at transport layer.  Why would the addition of G&D’s Mobicore OS mean much to mobile devices?  Doubters, I have a word for you: Cavium.

When Cavium Networks launched its processor business six years ago, it was hoping for a secure network-processing business …

I came across an interesting blog post from Don Dodge, who recently transitioned his electronic life to Google and Apple platforms after spending five years working as a Windows evangelist for Microsoft.

Dodge dumped his Windows PC, Outlook email client, IE browser, Office suite, Windows mobile phone and Zune music player in favor of a Mac, Gmail account, Chrome browser, Google Apps, Android phone and iPod. Dodge is now a developer advocate at Google (could it be he’s just eating his own dog food?) and it appears he’s happy with the switch.

“We humans are creatures …

We’ve already discussed the muted reception Apple received to the unveiling of its long awaited iPad tablet , and could Google be about to show the Cupertino company how it’s done?

Its Chromium developer channel has announced a video and images of a concept UI for tablets built upon Chrome OS, its impending free Cloud-based platform, and the results are highly impressive. Equal parts practicality and Minority Report, Google notes the key points as:

*Keyboard interaction with the screen: anchored, split, attached to focus.

*Launchers as an overlay, providing touch or search as …

Two modern proverbs suggest themselves when looking at ARM Holdings plc’s corporate earnings: When you’re at the bottom of a very deep well, all directions point up.  And when you and a partner are being chased by a bear, you only need outrun your partner.  ARM CEO Warren East reinforced these points rather explicitly Feb. 2 when he pointed out that revenues and income were still falling in the fourth quarter, but ARM still outpaced the semiconductor industry.

That’s hardly a surprise.  Not only is an ARM core in all smartbooks as well as …

Could this be the beginning of the manufacturer backlash? Following last week’s biblically-hyped launch of the Apple iPad and somewhat muted reception, it seems the Cupertino giant may have actually reduced interest in the tablet form factor, rather than built it up…

Acer has today become the first company to speak out against the tablet, saying it has no plans to make an iPad rival and will be sticking to netbooks (it is also rumored to be exploring smartbooks). Digitimes quotes Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin as saying …

The headlines were utterly predictable, yet no less annoying for their triteness:  By Saturday, Jan. 30, news sites worldwide already were declaring a widespread iPad backlash.  Backlash?  For a product not yet out of prototype?  Come on into the abuse pool, Apple, now you know how smartbook vendors feel!

Let’s distinguish between real-time critiques as iPad was launched Jan. 27, which were inevitable given certain less-than-optimal features like overpriced 3G, and the blanket comments by week’s end suggesting Apple was kaput, with a Newton or …

While I was hugely impressed by the Lenovo Skylight, the one area where I did express concern was the $499 asking price. We have long argued that smartbooks are not designed to compete directly with netbooks (rather they are a companion to smartphones) and as such, should sport a significantly lower RRP. Well here’s an example of just how low they can go…

Little-known PC maker Haleron Technologies has announced the ‘Swordfish’ – a colorful little smartbook with 7-in. display for just $149. How is this remotely possible? Read on.

For a …