Update. It appears that we might have stirred the sales and marketing groups into a re-think. The M528 3G pricing has dropped to 1199 AUD overnight which is a much more accpeptable pre-order, early adopter, Australian market price.
Update 2. There’s some back-pedalling going on with pricing following our story. Gigabyte say they haven’t agreed any pricing yet. Details here.
Interested in mobile Internet devices? You know, the ones aimed at the consumer with consumer features and consumer pricing? Then read on… Tegatech, a well-respected UMPC retailer in Australia has recently signed a deal with Gigabyte for the distribution of it’s UMPCs and MIDs in Australia and New Zealand and has sent out an email to it’s media contacts announcing that my favorite MID, the M528 is on their books. A quick look at their website reveals that, yes, the M528 is listed, still looking very desirable, with a nice 8GB flash drive, the 3MP auto-focus cam, an 800×480 touchscreen, 11Wh battery, built-in GPS, 3G radio and an 800Mhz Intel Atom processor. With a pocketable size, a pocketable weight and that slide out keyboard it’s a dream device for many. So what’s the cost? [After the image]
You pay: About $1450. (1549 AUD, 941 Euros, 750 UK pounds) Yes, I’ve double checked the currency conversions but feel free to re-check my figures because I’m hoping someone has made a mistake somewhere down the line!
Things to consider here include the fact that Tegatech are first out of the gate (if it was me I’d also add 10% for being the first to offer a desirable product) and the Australian sales tax that’s included in the price. (10%) Also add another 10% for Australian pricing and perhaps 10% for being a specialist retailer but that still leaves you with a $900 price for a product that’s supposed to be giving consumers the Internet in their pocket. Of course for me, its probably worth it as I’ve previously paid more for lesser devices but I’ll let the comments speak for themselves on this as I think I know what the response from most people is going to be.
Final specs have also been received here (and are available here in a PDF document) so I’ll update the product page as soon as I’ve re-gained the desire to blog about UMPCs 
In the meantime, tell us how much you’d be prepared to pay (in pre-tax $US) for the 3G-enabled M528 MID below.
M528 ETA Late June 2008. (As expected.)
Source: Tegatech Australia.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:07 am
WOW, and WOW again, that pricetag is way to high for an MID…I think I’ll pass on this one…
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:25 am
this sucks big time ass!
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:36 am
WTF????
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Ridiculous! We can buy a good laptop with that price. Seriously, what are they thinking?
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Isn’t a pre order price? If it is, I wouldn’t worry to much as it will most definitely change once unit goes on sale. It’s just an indication, a test if you will - How much interest is out there, and how much retailers can charge to sell it quickly for the most $$$$
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:55 am
So I guess they really don’t want to sell any then?
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May 13th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Its Tegatech. They’ve been charging exorbitant prices in Australia as they’re pretty much the sole UMPC importer which is why most Australians buy UMPCs from the US!
Tegatech is about 30-40% more expensive than the US so if that Australian price is accurate, expect it to sell for around US$800-$900.
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May 13th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Unbelievable. That is utterly insane. I’ve been in contact with Compal and they are going to get me in touch with their US distributor of this same model– hopefully the price won’t be so exorbitant!
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May 13th, 2008 at 1:33 am
now the price tag is 1199aud, but still too high….
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May 13th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Intel Atom 800mhz?
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May 13th, 2008 at 2:07 am
$999 now.
I’d pay that, but I would prefer it to be cheaper.. I was kinda hoping to pay $600 - $700.
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May 13th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Tegatech owner’s vidblog got me very interested in UMPCS 2-3 years ago. Tegatech’s pricing has kept me away from buying a UMPC for 2-3 years.
I am not very keen to buy a UMPC OS without a local warranty, so I sit and drool over this site daily and get frustrated by Aussie resellers.
Also Chippy, just a note, sure the regional advertising is effective, but everyday I look on the site I get the tegatech advertisement and it makes my blood boil!
Can be a bit more random and get some us advertisements more often?
mt 2c.
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May 13th, 2008 at 3:10 am
yah right.. not paying that. was hoping to get this for the gps, but i dont live in australia and from the comments this retailer is just being a nobhed. at that price i think you might aswell get an oqo 02
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May 13th, 2008 at 3:11 am
Yeah, tegatech at it again.
Still a bit expensive, but Australians can go here.
http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au
Oh wow. New ARM + WinCE based MID. Looks interesting.
http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/products/configure.asp?c1=3&c2=12&id=2580
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May 13th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Yeah, as always. This new technology is going to be so much better than the previous one and is also going to be so much cheaper, blah blah blah. Then when it actually comes out, gets a price tag that seems to be encrusted with diamond.
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May 13th, 2008 at 6:46 am
The spec is completely identical to the n810 Wimax edition, except you can run windows program slowly on it.
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May 13th, 2008 at 7:01 am
owydd, one word… Dynamism. They’re not the cheapest retailer either but their service is good and they ship to Aus. I you really want to buy local, Expansys have a few devices and have an office in Melb.
I would wait for a US price before complaining that it’s too expensive. After compensating for the Tegatech premium, it should sell for around US$650 if Tegatech are now selling it for AU$1199. Still a bit higher than originally quoted but not far off.
Seems like an interesting device… but must resist until the X1 comes along! It’ll be interesting to see how quickly developers build/port applications to the platform.
I wonder how Nokia is going to respond……
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May 13th, 2008 at 9:02 am
tinotino
The spec is completely different under the hood. You are looking at a device with about 4 times the raw processing power and with much better video playback support, a more reabable screen and a double sized battery that is far more suited to 3g bassed work. Keyboard is far better too and you have 8g flash installed, 3mp auto focus camera. If the software is good, this device could be what the N810 should have been.
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May 13th, 2008 at 11:20 am
still too expensive. I would buy an eee instead.
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May 13th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I think your sentiment will be repeated many times.
HOwever, what it probably menas is, ‘I don’t actually need a high-end mobile internet device. An Eee and a smartphone suits me better.’
At 1199 AUD, I estimate the US street price to be around 35% less. About $799 to start with (including 3G) and then going down to $699 in 2008 with $599 as a target for 2009. In my opinion, that’s $100 too much for early adopters and $200 too much for any mass market interest. SOmeone needs to take a risk on quantities like ASUS did with the Eee and drop it down to $399 without 3G and $499 with 3G. With a 24-month data contract, $299.
Steve.
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May 13th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
And again why should one buy this over a fully capable feature-full internet smartphone like the Xperia X1?
Or a Nokia n810?
or an iPhone 3G… or or or…
NOT worth it.
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May 13th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Tegatechs samsung q1u vista is still priced at us$1900, and retailers in the Usa have them for us$650
Does that tell you something…………
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May 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Now you tell me, if you are going to pay that amount why you don’t better get a UMPC. It seems to me that Microsoft was not the only one wrong by setting the initial price for UMPC at 500 dollars
In fact, probably that price never was mentioned by Microsoft which is a software company but an Intel’s Idea.
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May 13th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Tegatech re-adjusted their pricing and things are looking much better for U.S. customers.
http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/05/m528-pricing-drops-into-the-safety-zone-expect-750-in-the-us/
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May 13th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
As Dr. McCoy would say…
ARE YOU OUT OF YOU VULCAN MIND???!!!
Seriously,
With UMPC’s around $400 to $600 (EEEPC, HP2133, MSi Wind) They’d better get a clue! really fast!!!
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May 13th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
WWAN is via card? Good, actually, as that might make it possible to use CDMA, LTE, and/or WiMAX if cards are released.
Wifi is via SDIO and not internal chips? bad.
BT is via USB and not internal chips? bad.
I had high hopes for this device. But those last two items make me worry… esp. if there’s only the one SD interface, so you wont be able to use other storage cards while you’re on wifi.
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May 13th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Does any of the other MID devices which are planned suppose to have a bigger UMPC like hard drive?
And any plan to make any of them also carry cellular capability thus just drop the need to carry another device with me? I have seen the poll here few days ago and I must say I want a single super pocket size PC.
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May 14th, 2008 at 3:57 am
This thing seems lower spec than the openPandora.org handheld and it is like almost 4x the price! I know what I’ll be getting… Pandora has gaming controls too!
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May 14th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Will this Unit make Voice Phone calls
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June 1st, 2008 at 2:10 am
Has there been any definite news whether or not wifi and bluetooth are built in, I’ve seen info in some places saying that they are and in others that they aren’t.
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July 12th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Nokia can beat the M528 by releasing a follow up to the N810 with 1024×600, a faster processor (VIA Nano 1Ghz?), support for more memory and install of any Linux distro - all in a form factor no larger than the M528. It can be done. The Archos 605 supports 160GB.
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