OnlyUMPC have a link to a really interesting cost breakdown for the component parts of a UMPC written by Linda Epstein of TabletPC2.com.
Its a great post and goes through exactly why UMPCs won’t reach $500 in a short space of time and why the economies of scale haven’t kicked in for the market yet. I said similar things in a post the other day about incubating UMPCs.
There are going to be something like 100 million notebooks sold in 2006. I’m guessing that Origami UMPC sales will reach about 0.01% of that so can you imagine the differences in the price of component parts and the cost-per-unit of tooling, production and marketing. Its huge.
I’m also a believer that the price needs to stay high for a bit to give resellers a chance to find their feet in marketing these devices. Its a costly exercise to have to spend an hour with a client to show them the advantages of mobility!
Well done Linda on a great article.
Steve /Chippy.
