The market for so-called ultra mobile device or UMDs will become huge as more products are developed and distributed even by telecom operators, according to ABI Research.
UMD is a catch-all term that currently includes ultra-mobile PCs or UMPCs, netbooks, and mobile Internet devices or MIDs.
ABI predicts vendor revenues out of this market will increase from $3.5 billion in 2008 to nearly $27 billion in 2013.
This year, retail sales account for only 14% of shipments, while UMDs provided by mobile operators stand at nearly 30%; the balance are sold directly by manufacturers.
Over five years, however, that distribution mix will change significantly, according to ABI.
Operators currently subsidize UMDs for the sake of their potential services revenue, but are predicted they would prefer not to. By 2013, only 20% will be operator-provided, while retail sales are expected to account for 75%.
In 2013 more than half of all UMDs will have x86 processors at their heart (largely Intel's Atom), with the balance based on ARM processors.
When it comes to operating systems, in 2013 Linux will outnumber Windows devices by two to one across all UMDs, despite the higher return rate for Linux products (compared to Windows products) experienced by netbook vendors today.
Some MIDs will offer cellular voice services.
"MIDs without cellular voice will be seen by users as "Ëœcompanion devices'," said ABI principal analyst Philip Solis. "They will be used in addition to mobile phones and not necessarily carried at all times.
"Cellular voice-enabled MIDs, in contrast, will be able to replace phones entirely; they will become the new high-end smartphones," Solis said.