The smartbook has been waiting 28 years to be the next best thing

Could netbooks be replaced by smartbooks? Yes. But will they? Maybe. The smartbook name has been adopted by companies working with ARM (Advanced Risc Machines), which developed the core processor used by most smartphones. The general idea is to run smartphone software such as Google's Linux-based Android and Microsoft's Windows CE (AKA Windows Mobile) on portable computers with 7in-10in screens.

These could be netbooks or touch-operated tablets. Apple, which sells ARM-based devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, has been widely tipped to produce the latter.

Smartbooks are designed to work with online applications rather than traditional desktop software – one of the ideas behind netbooks. As we know, things turned out differently. Suppliers such as Acer, Asus and MSI were keen to sell netbooks running Linux-based systems with consumer-friendly front ends but these models failed in the marketplace.

When users were given the option to buy much the same hardware at a higher price running Microsoft Windows XP instead, the Linux versions went from 100% of the market to around 5%.

Buyers also drove the netbook market towards larger screens. These grew from 7in in the original Asus Eee PC 700 to today's 10-12in models. Netbooks are now much like laptops, except with less memory (1GB) and Intel Atom processors, which are less powerful but provide longer battery life.

Smartbooks could do better for four reasons: 1) they could appeal to people who like smartphones but want a bigger keyboard and screen; 2) they should be acceptable to the mobile phone network suppliers that already support smartphones; 3) they offer better battery life than netbooks; 4) they should be cheaper than netbooks, with $199 being the target price.

Bob Morris, ARM's director of mobile computing, thinks there's a big market at what he reckons is an "impulse buy" price. "To me, it's basically going to be the bottom floor of computing – it's the general consumer, it's the masses in China – and from that we can push up," he says. "It's simple, and I think the general consumer is going to buy into simple when it hits the right form factor."

Mind you, Morris also predicts that Microsoft will make Windows available on the ARM chip, which he says is a business issue, not a technical one.

The smartbook idea makes sense, but there's nothing new about it. Companies have been trying to sell this type of product for 28 years, without much success. The list includes notepads such as the Epson HX-20, Tandy 100, Cambridge Computer Z88 and Amstrad NC100, the WebPad project, and various oddball devices such as Netpliance's i-Opener. Microsoft and its hardware partners have had several goes, including WebTV set-top boxes, PC companions such as the Compaq Aero 8000, and Origami tablet designs such as the Samsung Q1.

The closest to a success story was the Psion Series 5 – the larger Series 7 was the original NetBook – but sales were tiny.

Still, if you like the idea of a smartbook, you should soon have several to choose from. The first to reach the UK is Datawind's UbiSurfer, for "ubiquitous surfing". It's an ARM-based netbook with a 7in screen, a Linux operating system, and 1GB of Flash storage.

The UbiSurfer also comes with a Vodafone sim installed, and the price includes 30 hours a month of free web surfing for one year, via GPRS, in the UK.

The fact that the smartbook idea has been tried and failed doesn't mean it will fail again. So maybe its time has finally come.