The first ARM-based netbook will come not from a traditional PC OEM but from a wireless carrier - AT&T - according to the CEO of Qualcomm, Paul Jacobs, speaking to his company's investor conference in New York.
The Netbook, using a Snapdragon chip-set incorporating an ARM core, will be manufactured by Lenovo and officially launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2010.
Jacobs said that he thought the wireless carriers are becoming more enthusiastic about embracing new data services models.
Research by Deutsche Bank says that, while Blackberry and the iPhone had only 3 per handset market share last year, 35% of the operating profits of the network operators were generated on those two phones.
AT&T has been looking at generating data revenues by selling laptop dongles. Adding Netbooks tied to a service contract, or a pay-as-you-go model tied to their network, is a new way to boost their data revenues.
Motorola recently launched a range of phones which use Google's Android OS to facilitate social networking which is the most voracious consumer of wireless data usage.
Although there have been many designs of ARM-based Netbooks, which are said to have been prepared for volume production by various electronics contract manufacturers, none of the traditional computer manufacturers has stepped forward to OEM one of those designs.
However the wireless carriers, challenged by falling voice revenues on their networks, have to find new sources of revenue. And the main new source is data. Furthermore, it seems that it is the hardware manufacturers, with data-optimised terminals, who are the main driving force persuading peoples to consume more wirless data.
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