A brief rundown of important UMPC market news this for this week.
HTC own brand
We commented on the strength of HTC earlier this week in our Via OnDemand report. It seems that HTC are now moving into distributing their devices under their own brand. This is a good indication of the strength and direction of the company. If they do move into the UMPC market as predicted, we expect to see some strong marketing and high quailty industrial designs. HTC re-iterated their commitement to mobile carriers so maybe the UMPC’s could be sold both direct and through carriers with subsidies.
VIA, being a closely related company, stands to do well out of this if it happens.
Averatec AHI. late Q3 launch
We got in touch with Averatec this week regarding the AHI to see if there was any new news. All they could tell us is that they plan to formally announce the AHI at the end of Q3 and begin shipping ’shortly thereafter.’ We’ll keep hounding them for new information.
Another Amtek T700 product.
The Amtek T700 original design has been used by at least 4 resellers now. SmartCaddie, Easybook, Eo, It’s and now the Dreambook. Its sold by Pioneer Computers in Australia. Info via GottaBeMobile
UMPC definition.
Following a few posts this week about the real definition of the acronym ‘UMPC’, no-one seems to have challenged my final comment. I’m assuming that other people feel the same. If not, let me know! If Samsung put an AMD processor in the Q1 case, would it still be a UMPC?
[update: Craig Pringle has now replied in his blog here.]
Following up on that theme though, i’ve decided to write a Buyers Guide to UMPC’s which i’ll post on the main portal very soon. I hope this helps people that are taking a first-look at UMPCs understand exactly what Ultra-Mobile PC’s are.
Mobits availability Sept. 7″ only for now.
We got some more info back from Mobits about the ‘X15′. Although they didn’t answer our specific questions about product name, screen res and reseller, they did say that the production line for the 7″ version is being prepared and they expect the first run in September. I’m trying to find out exactly who is going to resell this device.
UMPC Linux.
Speaking to Sasch Pallenberg, founder and MD of Epios, the company that produces via-optimised Linux distributions, he said that he’s considering developing a UMPC version of the distribution. When asked about touch screen and hardware specifics he told us that it should be no problem. They’ve already produced and demonstrated an embedded version for touch panels so I guess he knows whats what! We’ve agreed to stay closely in touch on the issue of Linux on UMPC’s as its something both Carrypad and Epios feel positive about.
Apple Rumors.
And finally, what week wouldn’t be complete without an Apple rumor? This time it’s the re-surfacing of the Apple UMPC rumor. Timescale: Jan 2007. We’ll report on it when we hear concrete details.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
Steve / Chippy.
