Death of the UMPC? 127
An anonymous reader writes "Remember the UMPC, that little tablet that Microsoft once called Origami? Well it looks like that Intel has scrapped the idea of promoting the UMPC, in favor of a much smaller (and less capable) Mobile Internet Device (MID). The UMPC is now heading for a market niche, where it may be replacing the tablet PC as a mobile computer for field technicians. The MID takes on the role of the original UMPC concept, but it won't run Vista."
Another lame MS idea crashes & burns (Score:1, Insightful)
Hey, while we're at it, how's those tablet PC sales, guys?
Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns (Score:5, Funny)
* It needs to have the full face be a screen and
* It needs to integrate with cellphone data networks and
* While you're at it you might as well make calls on it and
* Put in a web browser and
* Connect via 802.11 to the rest of the world.
Finally they'll make it look like arse and put WinCE on it. It'll come out a year after the iPhone and will suck. Shit, if we're lucky it'll be called Zune UMPC.
Dave
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Shit, if we're lucky it'll be called Zune UMPC
And if we're even more lucky, it's gonna come in BROWN
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Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns (Score:4, Funny)
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Seriously, how can someone live in Seattle and not be embarrassed by this blatant display of total un-coolness?
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you mean... like we have had for years? (Score:2)
The real question is why there is all this hoopla over the iPhone; as far as I can see, there is not much that's
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Because the whole "Pocket PC" industry is, at it's core, derived from the Palm Pilot. Which, apart from being a spectacular double entendre, is a non-sexy product. It's not cool, it's not funky, and at no point were there colourful adverts with people dancing around while entering phone numbers into a spectacularly expensive piece of consumer electronics. When they then lost.
The iPhone, on the other hand, extends both the iPod and the "OSX era
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The exact same reason why there's hoopla over Macs, when they're just like regular PCs: it runs Mac OS.
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Yep. It's almost like there's more to designing electronic devices than just the physical size and the feature list. As if there were some sort of...interface...between the person and the machine, the design of which is important to some people.
I wonder if there are any companies that have built a loyal (although not overwhelmingly large, but very acceptably profitable) following in the market by having well-designed us
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http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/04/intel_anno unces_moorestown/ [reghardware.co.uk]
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It can't be all that bad (Score:2, Funny)
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N800 (Score:5, Informative)
Hildon? (Score:1)
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The UMPC was like the original Newton, not enough, but too much. The screen was too small, and the interaction too minimal. Another lock-in gone awry. I did just purchase a BB 8800 and have to say t
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I sure as Hell hope not! I've got a 12" Tablet PC, and that screen's quite small enough for me -- and I went out of my way to get 1400x1050. Any resolution lower than that is too damn small. Now, don't get me wrong: manufacturers can feel free to make the machine paper-thin and light, but it's got to have at least, say, an 8" diagonal screen with 1024x768 to be even slightly useful (and the more pixels,
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> I've got a 12" Tablet PC, and that screen's quite small enough for me -- and I went out of my way to get 1400x1050.
What model Tablet PC do you have? I've never seen one with the SXGA+ resolution before.
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I can't wait till someone brings out 1600x1200 on a 12" laptop. I know you can get 1920x1200 on a 15.4" widescreen from Dell and a few others but those laptops are just too large for me.
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Lenovo X60 Tablet.
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Depends on what you're using it for. My Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 [on.net] (link is not my site, BTW) has a screen about 4 inches diagonal. It's highly portable and I use it a lot for writing (poems, stories, essays - text entry as opposed to heavy formatting). I have even taken it on camping trips, USB cabled to my cell phone to check mail and have emergency login capabilities to the serv
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i know i wished i could get hold of one when they where first announced...
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While I certainly agree that the Apple iPhone UI looks awesome and is probably better than everything else out there, the iPhone won't fly in the enterprise market which has the money for the service plans needed to exploit the full capabilities of these devices. It needs to have an open development platform. The plethora of free and commercial third party apps on palm / WM are what
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There are plenty of applications for portables of all shapes and sizes. While I don't see a need for anything between a laptop or an n800, I can easily see a warehouse guy, physician
Personally, I'm excited (Score:2)
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Here, let me fix that for you: It's not a device for computing, its a device for laying in bed and surfing hardcore on the net.
There ya go, good as new.
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Large PDA (Score:5, Interesting)
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why (Score:2, Funny)
Because if it did, you'd have to lug a car battery around everywhere.
Hooray (Score:1)
Huh? (Score:2)
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The iPhone -- while it will likely be an innovative and fascinating device -- won't have the resolution to comfortably read larger documents or non-reformatted/horizontally scrolled webpages. That's not of course its primary purpose.
There are a very small number of PDA's that are 640x480, but most device
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There's actually very little that occupies the market niche of devices with sufficient resolution to read websites without reformatting them
That says more about the sad state of "web design" than anything else. "This site is best viewed at AAAxBBB resolution" was declared bad practice from the very start, not that many people paid attention to it. As the web was originally designed, we could all be browsing this discussion with our cellphones (and /. is one of the friendlier sites).
Ah well. My side lost that argument years ago. Mark me -1 redundant, die-hard.
Lack of width (Score:5, Funny)
a certain size
point where lack
of width of the
screen really
begins to be a
problem.
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The Sharp Zarus SLC [ezaurus.com] line is still available in Japan. The clamshell form factor is very common here for electronic dictionaries, in fact during my stay in Osaka a few people have mistaken my Z for one.
Doesn't do Bluetooth or WiFi without you
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It still has a phone for HSDPA/GPRS though, has WiFi, is now uncomfortably large to put in your pocket, has a hard drive, but won't run Vista because that's just to bloated.
But it's the natural way. I expect their next device to have a 7" 800x600 scre
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They just forgot to do the math (Score:3, Insightful)
There is a reason why ultra portable laptops are expensive and hard to get. The market is simply too small to become mainstream. If you go for desktop replacements ranging from 19" screens and up, you get the same thing.
Also, when you create a far too big hype around it like Microsoft did, you kind of have to expect something superb as well. If only they had released it without all the fuzz about it, media wouldn't kill it. We would look at it as some semi-gadget and semi-useful tool.
Also, why they pushed it so hard before we could actually catch up with the hardware is beyond me. Yes, first generation products are often crap, but if you combine the words ultra mobility with low battery life, you kind of ask for it.
Re:They just forgot to do the math (Score:4, Insightful)
As soon as I found out about the thing, a $2K PDA, I was reminded of my thoughts when "Ginger" was revealed to be the "Segway". How did Kamen expect to revolutionize transportation when a *real* car can be purchased for the same price? I know what he *said*r about Segway, that it doesn't compete "in the same space" with cars, scooters, bikes or rollerskates, but people with jobs tend to make decisions like that (wheels=transportation/computer=pda|laptop). So even if MS *says* the UMPC wan't competing with a laptop, the masses standing at the counter at BestBuy will look at the device and all think "damn, I can get a that laptop over there for less, or maybe that Treo, or, hell, *both* for less money".
Yes, there *is* a market for $1000 bottles of Crystal, but if I'm trying to break into the wine market, I'm aiming for the larger "screw-top" product space.
OS X for MID (Score:3, Insightful)
Great. (Score:1)
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Exactly. I mean, if they put their minds to it, I bet Microsoft and Intel could come up with a personal computing platform that's used by more people than anything else in the world.
Oh well. Just a pipedream, I guess.
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I want a Cellphone running X with a Docking Port (Score:3, Interesting)
Seems pretty trivial, when that's available, let me know.
How could it die? (Score:1)
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Display (Score:1)
Looks like Intel is going to solve the CPU power usage issue here. NAND flash pricing and storage capacity is catching up. All we need now is a cheap and low power consumption display. TFT LCD is alright for mobile phone is because the LCD is not on most of the time. However for MIDS, people can browse the web for hours, it would really kill the battery fast.
So, until LCD can significantly reduce power consumpti
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Nokia had to resort to using a 4.1 inch LCD! Just imagine how much better the browsing experience would be if it a 12 inch LCD, or even a 7 inch LCD, if the battery would last!
Obligatory (Score:1, Flamebait)
And this is a bad thing?
Wow..... (Score:2)
No one notices (Score:1)
The UMPC dies. And no one notices.
I own a Sony UX280. I take pride in noone noticing it when I walk about. I wear a wind breaker or jacket which is plenty to cover the belt strap in which it is stored and transported. It looks really dorky when its visible. Its just small enough to hide and to most people that observe me using it they assume its some overly large hand held gaming device like a PSP or a small video player.
Perhaps part of making something popular in the market is its visibility in the public eye. Those iPod white headphones
Not the bang for the buck (Score:4, Interesting)
Price has nothing to do with it (Score:2)
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Logically, that's very true. However, it DEFINITELY impacts peoples' perceptions of what they need.
Sounds like a smartphone (Score:2)
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Speaking of UMPCs... (Score:2)
Kind of looks like a neat idea for its time, albeit a little limited by the available information processing technology of that era.
I'll take the keyboard! (Score:2)
That's one of the reasons I've never really gotten into the whole text-messaging/blackberry stuff. I could afford one (and my current phone does do texts) but it just seems obnoxious. I'm not going to sit there and type in a damn message with my thumbs, that's stupid, and probably unhealthy in the long run. (So
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I don't expect so.
I had an Epson PX-8 Geneva, a 1984 descendant of the HX-20. Its keyboard was sort of like the keyboard in my ThinkPad 760: Smooth at first, but gradually harder to press unless you're one of those freaks who press keys straight down. Except that it doesn't flex like the ThinkPad's keyboard.
Eventually, several collections of keys stopped working, and the machine in general beca
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Waiting for the N1000 (Score:3, Interesting)
The Nokia N800 [nseries.com] is a pretty nifty device, a WLAN-enabled "Internet tablet" with a nice high resolution screen, running the open source Maemo [maemo.org] platform based on the Linux kernel. Maemo has a very healthy open source developer community, and tons of the best applications have been ported to it. What is missing, however, is a GSM chipset, or indeed any non-WLAN networking capability. Nokia apparently does not want its "Internet tablets" to compete with its smartphones. I am waiting, then, for an "N1000" that combines these capabilities. Perhaps OpenMoko [openmoko.com] will be successful, but it doesn't have the WLAN chipset.
Any device that combines these three factors - open source and full hackability, phone, and regular networking - will be a killer app. Hackability does not mean that it has to be difficult to use: with a Debian-like system for software management, users can experiment with new apps easily. Of course, many of the current economic models around cell phones (ring tone downloads, background images, specialized content portals) are not really sustainable, and so the market may be biased against that innovation. But a smart company will recognize that by maintaining strategic leadership within an open source ecosystem, they will create many more business opportunities for themselves than in a proprietary, locked down market. It's too bad that Apple doesn't appear to be that smart company. I hope that Nokia is.
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However, I suspect these open linux-based UMPC de
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Don't want GSM in my tablet (Score:2)
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My vision of a MID (Score:5, Interesting)
Current mini-Tablets, UMPCs, OQOs - any ultra-mobile (read small) PC solution for that matter, have an inherent disadvantage - they try to do too much in too little. miniaturization with full functionality is good but only up to a point - there comes a stage where the purpose of a device has to change, and then change the way people use it (and not necessarily the other way around always). We assume that a PC by it's very name defines the purpose of the device - that it has to store, process and communicate information. The OSs these days run high overheads and demand lot of hardware to support, which might be worthwhile if the system can be fully utilized - but when the goal is portability, the heavy framework becomes more of a burden than a feature. This is where a paradigm shift is needed - and it can be achieved, with the sweeping assumption that Internet is ubiquitous (an assumption that doesn't seem to be so wild these days).
A Mobile Internet Device would be a lean lightweight device that runs a small but not heavy-duty processor, and minimal hardware to support primary functions such as display, input, audio etc. It will not have an OS. Instead, what it will have is a Web Browser , and a basic BIOS type menu for system maintenance. The browser can be (preferably) written hardware specific, so it serves the dual purpose of a very basic OS as well as the browser itself. Of course the browser has to bem ore powerful than our regular ones with all appropriate plugins (Flash, JAVA, pdf etc) installed, but it still is no OS. It may look like this restricts the users to primarily browsing, but browsing is hardly passive these days - you can read, write, speak, draw, design - pretty much do any normal function with today's increasingly effective web apps. For instance - Google Docs & Spreadsheets replace MS/Open Office; there are similar web equivalents for other desktop functions and more are coming. In fact, there are webtops like Goowy and eyeOS which pretty much obviate the need of any local OS for common computing functions. No hard disk is needed because there is no large local storage - solid state memory will suffice. Onboard graphics card is enough, because all the display shows is Web content. The convergence of these hardware and software ideas lead to the perfect MID - not as small as a phone perhaps but small enough to be ultra-mobile, yet capable of replacing your regular desktop and serving as a PC solution for many ordinary users. The only (and reasonably significant) catch is that it needs a constant connection to the Internet to function.
Again, once the device starts to have extra applications other than the browser, it ceases to be a viable solution. The industry fears its product will fail if it doesn't provide the world to the customer, and the customer is often grabbing at more than what he/she will ever use. Only if we accept the design rule that this is this device's specific purpose, and we learn to use it that way (and there is no severe handicap in that for regular users who just like to browse or read mails or play a little solitare - all of which you can do online), will portable PCs really find a mass market.
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I think that this is actualy a showstopper problem.
The whole point of a ultra-mobile device is that you can use the device anywhere. If it only works when you've got a signal, then it's useless in a lot of situations. For instance, you couldn't use it while travelling at all as you'd potentially keep losing your link.
Similarly, you couldn't rely on it to store information if you are going to a busi
Portable Thin Client (Score:2)
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Who said anything about death? (Score:1)
*sigh* Can i just get a PADD already... (Score:2)
This reminds me... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's available for download now, and contains three programs aimed at UMPC use on Vista. It comes with a Sudoku game (?), a "designed for UMPC" shell for movies, music, pictures and programs, and apparently some improved touch-screen functionality. Would be interested to hear feedback from those with UMPC's using this on Vista.
It's about time (Score:5, Interesting)
However, they really didn't bother to actually test market these things before putting them out there. For one, the lack of a keyboard really limits usability. Heck, keyboards are becoming standard on phones these days. To not have a keyboard on a laptop replacement is silly.
Two, they don't fit anywhere. They're way too big for a pocket, so you have to put them in a bag or backpack. At that point, you might as well just use a 3 lb Sony Vaio Tx [sonystyle.com], or a 4 lb Lenovo v [lenovo.com], or a 4.5 lb Dell Xps [dell.com] or one of many other ultralight portables out there. And really, that's the key: laptops are losing weight as fast as the balance between performance and price will allow.
But worst of all, they never really had a use. They all take time to boot, so there isn't much use as a dayrunner. They have no keyboard, so word processing is out. And forget photoshop. What, exactly, are you supposed to do with one? Play halo? Web development?
Ultimately, all of the tasks that were supposed to be delegated to the UMPC were actually far better served by high-end phones. Need e-mail, texting, intranet access to a client database, and synching to a desktop? Just get a treo. They're about 1,000 dollars cheaper, and they fit in your pocket.
While I was intrigued by the concept, I won't be shedding a tear for the UMPC. They were far ahead of their time. Which is to say, someone was pushing them early in the hopes of making a quick buck.
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The HTC Shift [mobilegazette.com] will provide a mobile phone in a Vista UMPC form-factor. apparently "it is about the same size as two DVD cases", yet featur
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But worst of all, they never really had a use. They all take time to boot, so there isn't much use as a dayrunner. They have no keyboard, so word processing is out. And forget photoshop. What, exactly, are you supposed to do with one? Play halo? Web development?
This is a REALLY EXCELLENT POINT.
As the device size shrinks, so does the usability. Absence of a keyboard means quick input is effectively not possible, so a small device that you need to do a lot of input on is useless.
I'm looking for a new mobile phone, and I want to get something that runs Windows Mobile that syncs with Outlook and runs a few other apps I've been using on my Ipaq. Unfortunately most of the ones that run Windows Mobile are all stylus-based - and thus very big.
I don't want to do a lot of
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UM-who? PC? Oriwhatummajig? (Score:2)
UPMC? (Score:2)
No one? That's what I thought.
The Consumers Will Decide (Score:1)
No Use (Score:1)