Phones and notebooks will have ‘little difference’ between them

There will soon be very little difference between smartphones and notebooks, an analyst has suggested.

Carolina Milanesi, Gartner’s research VP for mobile devices technology and service provider research, told PCR that PC vendors are increasingly focusing on mobility.

“I do not see this as detrimental to their computer offering but as an extension of that offering as we move more and more towards a world where we will see little difference between a smartphone, a netbook and a notebook, other than hardware form factor,” she said.

Milanesi’s comments come as tablets such as the iPad increasingly bridge the gap between smartphones and netbooks. The Dell Streak, meanwhile, cannot seem to decide whether it is a phone or a tablet.

To read PCR’s full analysis of the converging smartphone and PC markets, click here.