I suspect that this is more of a move to catch up with HTC and smartphones in general rather than anything else but it is an example of what I expect to happen more and more over the next 2 years. RIM want to add media capabilities to their devices. In doing so, they are migrating up the chain towards smartphone land.

PDA, PocketPC and Smartphone manufacturers will be doing the same soon (keep your eyes on HTC!) They only need to re-package their high-end devices with bigger screens and keyboards and they’ve got themselves a low-end UMPC for minimal cost. They won’t run windows XP (yet!) but they will offer almost all of the functionality that ‘average users’ will need.

I’m wondering more and more that if UMPC marketing doesnt get off the ground soon (It appears that there has been no marketing funding from Microsoft since the Origami project finished), the market will split in two. There will be low-end UMPC’s sold in big numbers under discounts and subsidies by HTC, RIM and Nokia through mobile carriers, and high-end UMPC’s that will be full desktops, probably running Vista and staying above the $1000 mark. The low-end will capture the mass-market and the high-end will capture business users, verticals and those looking at a dual-purpose mobile desktop replacement.

If you were offered a feature phone and a UMPC-format PC-phone in one package with two SIM cards for half the price of a UMPC when you go to renew your phone, would you take it?

Regards
Steve / Chippy.