The Intel Developers Forum kicks off soon in Beijing and the IDF website already has a lot of information available. For example. All the PDF files for the presentations seem to be available. There’s a lot there to go through but the first ones I want to highlight are those that mention MID’s. Mobile Internet Devices.
“ultra mobile PC transitioning to MID” is one of the PDF slide titles that jumped out at me and it looks like Intel are trying to move away from using the term ultra mobile PC for consumer devices.
I totally agree that the ultra mobile PC market will split [my previous thoughts here] but what’s really interesting is that Windows doesn’t really feature an operating system for MIDs. Could they be thinking about the componentized Windows XP embedded? Here’s some of the characteristics that Intel think are important for MIDs.
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4-6″ display
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300g
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connectivity via WAN
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Hardware keyboard
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Touchscreen
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Video can
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Small onboard storage.
Which seems to fit exactly my vision of the Carrypad home and office companions. I like the way you’re thinking Intel!
Lets move on and take a look at something VERY interesting. In this PDF outlining the Intel 2008 MID devices, you can even see outlines of three new MID devices. The ‘Stay in touch’ MID, the ‘Be entertained’ MID (which looks like a redesigned Averatec AHI) the ‘Access info and locate’ MID and finally the ‘Be productive’ MID. Could these be the target markets for the four new MIDs that Intel will announce this week?
There’s a lot lot more in other PDFs and one thing I’m ‘feeling’ from these PDFs and the schedule of tracks and sessions is that HP are getting a lot of mentions and associations with mobile technology. Could HP be selling one of the new MID devices?
More MID info and articles.