Smartbook and netbook proponents alike have been focused on some pretty silly issues. We worry about the comparative performance of standard or dual-core microprocessors, we wonder if handheld devices need an HDMI port, we fret over the relative maturity of Android and Chrome. The past weekend has shown that such issues don’t make a damned bit of difference to the target audience. In fact, they indicate that we were wrong to chide Smartbook AG for releasing a jewel-encrusted laptop a few months back. It’s obvious that users of handheld devices are looking for little but bling.
Why be so jaded? Because reports at the end of last week that the iPhone 4’s external antenna positioning could lead to dropped calls unless the phone was held in a rather awkward way, did little to slow the stampede of sales that led to 1.7 million iPhone 4’s sold in three days – a number limited only by availability. At first, sarcastic observers were rolling their eyes at the fans camped out overnight in North America, Europe, and Asia, dressed up as iPhone 4’s and touting the wonders of a device that, at the end of the day, is merely a smaller, faster upgrade of 3GS.
But if we look at the milder but still obsessive behavior greeting Droid X, Samsung Epic, and other 4G phones taking a bow since mid-June, we realize that such silliness is part of the game. Smartphones need to be seen as equivalent to Prada or Fendi accessories – in fact, HTC and LG should quit looking for rebranding opportunities among the wireless operators, and start talking to leading fashion designers about having a smartphone bear the Jimmy Choo label!
What lessons can smartbook and netbook designers take from such ludicrous consumer crazes? First of all, USB sticks already have defined bling for necklace or bracelet dongles. This simply wouldn’t work for a tablet- or keyboard-based smartbook, unless people wanted to risk whiplash by wearing their favorite Lenovo. Second, the smartphone has defined the palm-sized cute market, and netbooks or smartbooks can’t play in an overtapped field.
Nevertheless, the current iPad, Nook, and Kindle e-readers/tablets ultimately are too big to be considered as fashion statements. And it seems as though “wearable computers” integrated directly into fabrics would yield bulkier clothing, not “deeply embedded” devices.
No, something between wallet and small purse size might be a new form factor waiting to be accessorized. Sure, being able to do useful work on a cloud-based client would set it apart from a smartphone, and such a device is likely to have a real keyboard (though not necessarily). The important thing to remember is to dispense with the idea of speeds and feeds. Who cares about Ethernet and Wi-Fi when you can order your smartbook with a real alligator-skin package? Who cares about single sign-in security or Adobe Flash 10.1, when you can order a netbook with the signature of your favorite designer? Hell, Nike’s experience with limited-edition shoes would suggest that if a series of smartbooks was designed with, say, 5000 copies of a single design worldwide, dozens of such “limited edition” designs could sell out faster than a new toy at an Apple Store.
We apologize for earlier snickering at Swarovski-coated computers. It’s obvious from the iPhone 4 response that consumers care more about the novelty of a special shiny object’s appearance, than they do about something as mundane as compute performance. Whether something works is all but irrelevant.
Loring
