Death of the UMPC?

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."

It can't be all that bad

[Fomies]

It won't run Vista. What more could you want from a computer?

why

[Anonymous Coward]

The MID takes on the role of the original UMPC concept, but it won't run Vista

Because if it did, you'd have to lug a car battery around everywhere.

Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns

[WasterDave]

Exactly. Somebody has sat around in a board meeting and said "well, it's not small enough to sit in your pocket, but it's not big enough to be useful as a PC. We need to give up on the PC idea" and sooner or later they'll conclude that:

* 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

Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns

[Anonymous Coward]

While Microsoft says "hey Slashdot how is that desktop linux doing?"

Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns

[bangenge]

Shit, if we're lucky it'll be called Zune UMPC

And if we're even more lucky, it's gonna come in BROWN

Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns

[Breakfast Pants]

Just so we're clear: are we making fun of the Zune or Ubuntu?

Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns

[Lumpy]

No not brown. Following Microsoft's style engineers history, it will either be golden-rod yellow or baby poop green.

Lack of width

[dj245]

There comes
a certain size
point where lack
of width of the
screen really
begins to be a
problem.