Netbooks, smartbooks to gain 20% of notebook market next year

Small and cheap notebooks have been coming strong and will keep growing, the market not the computers, over the next year. According to fresh data from market survey company Forward Concepts netbooks will hold no less than 17percent of the notebooks market in 2010. Another 3.9 percent will be claimed by the new smartbooks.

A smartbook is kind of like a notebook and mobile phone hybrid. The formfactor will be slightly smaller than the average netbook, which is usually around 10-11″. And under the hood the smartbooks are much like the modern smartphones, with ARM processors and Linux operating system.

ARM smartbook by ASUS