Japan's KDDI, Okinawa cellular and Sharp are gearing up to launch a new Android device called the IS01. It's being called a Smartbook as its designed to fill the gap between the smartphone and, you guessed it, a notebook. This touchscreen (5-inches 960 x 480 display resolution), QWERTY keypad equipped mini-computer is also loaded with a 1GHz snapdragon processor and 3 Gigs of internal memory that's expandable with microSDHC cards up to 16GB. Sharp has also thrown in a track ball to add a little ease to navigating the menus. Unfortunately it'll be running on a version 1.6 for now, I was hoping it would have at least 2.0. It's a CDMA locked device and will also feature Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Infra Red (????) modes of connectivity. It even has a 5MP autofocus CMOS camera. So it's quite like phone as well complete with telephone that can be used with a handsfree or A2DP compatible headset if you so desire.

The IS01 will be out in 2 models Black and Light Blue sometime in late April or early June. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an associated price just yet. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and watch. My only thought is, with the entrance of this new concept, the Smartbook, into the fray of mobile computing, where does the Netbook now stand?

Impress