The Christmas season is obviously a big sales period for electronics equipment and this year there’s one more market segment that will be competing for your money. UMPC’s.
Over the last few quiet months in the UMPC world, we’ve been hearing about new products that are going to be launched and it looks like these are all aiming for the Christmas sales period. In the far-east, work will be starting right now on production lines in preparation for production runs in August. Here’s an update on the long-awaited devices.
Asus R2H UMPC
The latest news from Asus is that the production and delivery (to resellers) starts in early August. This information is direct via Asus Germany and is their latest information.
Tablet Kiosk UMPC x2
The latest news is that Tablet Kiosk have two devices that will be announced in late July. This information comes from Tablet Kiosk. I assume that production will start soon after the announcement is made.
Mo-bits UMPC
The latest news is that the 7″ version of the device is due for launch in September. This information comes direct from Mobits in Taiwan. The reseller for this device is as-yet unknown.
Pepperpad 3
The Pepperpad 3 has already had it’s press release and its due to be available through reltailers in August for the Amrericas. There’s no news about availability for other regions.
Averatec AHI.
We’ve had confirmation that the Averatec will be “formally announced in late Q3 and begin shipping shortly thereafter.” Once again, that means they’re aiming for Christmas sales.
DualCor.
Confirmation has been given through VIA’s press release that the DualCor will be launched. “The DualCor cPC is expected to be available in the first half of 2006″ was stated in the recent VX700 chipset press release. It’s now the second half of the year so we can expect something soon.
Other unconfirmed UMPC’s
There’s still the Samsung Q2 VIA/AMD rumor to confirm along with rumors of a new Nokia UMPC/mini tablet and, of course, the omni-present Apple UMPC rumor! The Flybook V33i is overdue and the Founder Mininote/ECS H70 still only seems to be available in the far eastern markets.
Regards
Steve / Chippy.
July 10th, 2006 at 10:57 am
As far as I know, the Q2 will use VX700 but may not use C7 cpu. Again, this was come from an unconfirmed information. Personally I think the VX700 is the best solution for UMPCs. The chip combined with NB and SB, TMDS, LVDS, even with TV encoder with up to 1080i HDTV support. Let’s see if this rumor come true.
July 10th, 2006 at 11:05 am
Hi Anon!
OK, if the core solo ULV was used, it would make sense. These devices will be competitive with the C7-M ULV.
I agree, th VX700 (M version I think we’re talking about) makes a superb chipset for UMPC’s.
Steve / Chipp