Archive for March 15th, 2006

They’re saying a lot of whats already been said but it carries a fair bit of weight when Gartner says it.

[url=http://www.gottabemobile.com/GartnerPublishesTheirAnalysisOnTheUMPC.aspx]gottabemobile[/url] highlighted the Gartner report today where they talk about sub $400 pricing and 8 hour battery life.

Take a look at the report which should still be available [url=http://www.gartner.com/resources/138500/138574/umpc_has_promise_but_is_far__138574.pdf]at the gartner website.[/url]

[quote]Today, we believe it isn’t possible to produce compelling UMPC products — just “proofs of concept.” The low battery life, high price and non-Vista operating system will likely hurt the UMPC’s market acceptance in this first go-round, and the negative backlash could damage its future chances. For these reasons, we question the timing of this launch: Why rush this to market
before it is ready to succeed? Despite the promise of this device category, the UMPC as currently conceived will fail to achieve mainstream success — defined as unit sales in the millions rather than the thousands — by 2009 (0.8 probability).[/quote]

It may be a bit too early to market but its good that someones had the courage to do it on a bigger scale. Its stirred every manufacturer up in the UMPC space and we’re going to see better devices sooner because of it.

Let us know what you think in the [url=http://www.origamiportal.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&topic_id=68&forum=1]forum thread.[/url]

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Dustin Hubbard, Microsoft Mobile PC manager, has returned from CeBIT and answered a lot of Origami/UMPC related questions on the OrigamiProject.com blog. Check out the whole article [url=http://origamiproject.com/blogs/team_blog/archive/2006/03/14/1908.aspx]here[/url].

Here is a sampling of some key points from the question and answer session:

[b]Does the origami have instant on?[/b]

* The resume from standby is quite good and fast
* The Samsung Q1 has 2 boot modes on a 3 way power switch (On, Off, AVS Multimedia)
* AVS Multimedia allows near instant on

[b]Release dates[/b]

* Realistically, Samsung will be the first available in the US, most likely in April

[b]Voice Recognition[/b]

* XP Tablet PC Edition has built-in speech recognition
* Should work well with the Samsung array microphone

[b]Apple has better design[/b]

* Microsoft is working on taking a more active role with OEMs on their hardware

[b]Is there any kind of sleep mode[/b]

* Not yet, but SlideShow in Vista could take advantage of this

[b]Will Vista run well on the UMPC?[/b]

* Dustin’s group will be doing testing to see how Vista runs in the upcoming months

Thanks again to Dustin for taking the time to answer some questions. I think it bodes well for the Origami devices to have such a dedicated team that interacts with the fans. They are like the [url=http://www.blogmaverick.com]Mark Cuban[/url] of Microsoft (and look how well the Mavericks are doing lately). (more…)

Steve Paine, our friendly moderator known as chippy, has written an excellent report comparing the Intel and VIA chipsets that are vying for Ultra-Mobile PC supremecy. Intel checks in with the Pentium-M and Celeron-M low-voltage CPU’s while VIA steps up with the C7-M ultra-low-voltage (ulv) CPUs.

[b]The 1st-Gen UMPC/Origami devices have already chosen sides:[/b]
In Intel’s corner: Asus R2H, Founder Mininote, Samsung Q1, ECS H70
In VIA’s corner: PaceBlade SmartCaddie, TabletKiosk V-700

Please check out the [url=http://blog.carrypad.com/2006/03/origami-cpu-overview.html]whole article on Steve’s ‘Time for the Carrypad?’ blog[/url].

[b]Here are some interesting excerpts:[/b]

…The Celeron-M devices are Pentium-M devices with a reduced L2 cache and importantly, speed-stepping removed. They are offered as a lower cost alternative to the Pentiums saving something in the region of $80 in component costs to the manufacturers…

…Via’s offering is the VN800 and VT8237 combination as its solution. It has a 400/533 or 800mhz FSB, supports 4GB of RAM and graphics is provided by the Unicrome pro graphics processor. Via also include the Via vinyl hi-def audio solution a TV encoder, hardware-assisted MPEG2 decoding and de-interlacing…

…On the face of it, VIA looks to have a strong offering for UMPC devices. With their lower power, faster speed-stepping and integrated MPEG and TV outputs theres some significant advantages. On the other hand, the Intel Pentium CPU is going to be the more powerful choice. The Celeron is going to be cheap but with its lack of speed-stepping, is going to be probably the most power-hungry of the CPU’s…

Now, we can all sit back and see who comes out on top in this battle of the chips. (more…)