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Many handset manufacturers are considering their entry into the netbook and smartbook segments showing their eagerness to compete with PC market leaders such as Dell, Acer and Asus. The world's top cellphone maker Nokia has already entered the already crowded netbook market with its first Netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G.

This Netbook will use Microsoft's Window software and Intel's Atom Processor to offer upto 12 hour of battery life. Detailed specifications, market availability and price of this Nokia Booklet 3G is yet not announced. Apart from Nokia other handset manufacturers are also planning to foray in this extremely competitive market.

PC makers feel threat from handset companies. Like handsets manufacturers, PC makers are also entering phone market making it more competitive. In 2007, Apple started this trend by entering the phone market with its iPhone. Today more PC companies are joining the bandwagon. Acer, which is primarily known as PC and notebook manufacturer, came out with five smartphone models, indicating a blurring of lines between the two devices. US Computer giant Dell is also making its debut in smartphones market by joining hands with China Mobile. Dell is aiming to tap the China's burgeoning 3G market with its smartphone entry.

A smartphone today is perceived to offer a good navigation capability, email capability as well as offering office applications like MS word, powerpoint and excel. Most of the applications which are used by a normal office goer are available on a smartphone and with the iconic iPhone in the fray since last year the number of applications has only increased. It also offers ease-of-use because of smaller size when compared with netbooks.

The numbers speak for themselves: smartphone which was around Rs 3,260 crore market in 2007-08 grew around 78% to Rs 5,800 crore in 2008-09. The market for smartphones has been consistently increasing in the last year or so in the country. It is not just the enterprise user but also a normal user who want to have net access and thus opts for smartphone for infotainment purposes. Easily accessible killer applications are likely to appeal more to the user. Besides, smartphones are likely to have a longer battery life than netbooks.

Netbooks on the other hand offers computing as we know it, with traditional interface and operating systems. The only advantage of netbooks is that it offers a bigger screen when compared with smartphone.

Price is again a non-issue. A netbook is today available in the market for as low as Rs 15,000 and a basic BlackBerry smartphone is available for a little more than Rs 10,000. Clearly, there is hardly any price differential.

Realizing the threat from netbooks, many handset manufacturers are seriously looking at netbook segment. Nokia has formed an alliance with Intel to jointly look at this opportunity. Apple on the other hand sells Advanced Risc Machines (ARM)-based devices called smartbook, which are designed to work with online applications rather than traditional desktop software.

Though smartbooks are yet to knock the Indian market but still it has created a lot of excitement and interest among India's tech savvy people. According to some industry sources the Smartbooks combines the best of both netbooks and smartphones in a way to redefine the computer and phone experience into a single small device. Smartbook, also known as Pursebook, offers a host of benefits, especially screen size which is larger than the smartphone designs and smaller than the netbooks.

According to industry sources, Qualcomm would give India its first smartbook on its Snapdragon processor. Acer, a biggest manufacturer of netbook PC , is also planning to enter into the smartbook segment. Dell is also exploring the possibilities.

Though smartbook is also going to give tough competition to both netbooks and smartphones but it will take time. Going forward, more and more features are likely to be added to the smartphones, making it more appealing than netbooks to the end consumer. Customer will have wider options, but convenience and price will determine the success.