[...] but given Archos consumer focus, is likely to be style-oriented and presumably, well-priced. The Techcrunch tablet team will have to watch this one. The press release then goes on to talk about a Moorestwon-based [...]

[...] Arrington’s original focus for the design was web activities so it’s not suprising he’s gone for a PC-based solution. Web-based activities are [...]

yo…

Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!…

All i can say is… WOW!!!!
I mean if any average 12year old would do something like that… well, ok! But on techcrunch? Holy moly!

I just got rid of the techcrunch rss feed and subscribed to Fox news… pretty much the same level of investigative journalism.

seems like someone is looking for Walts’ job at the NYT

i think tablet is the next step (i mean form factor like Kohjinsha SC3). I’m not sure about the $200, but we have eee pc 900 for $310 in Moscow now, so why cannot we have tablet for a bit bigger price?

the key moment i think is a virtual keyboard – i think it’s a mobile future for 5″ devices (because of the economy on the weight and thickness), but maybe for bigger screens too. iPhone showed that virtual keyboard can be pretty useful on 3,5″ screen. I’m sure that enough fast typing is possible on 7″ and more screen.

I wonder if the TechCrunch tablet will follow a similar path to the pro-mobile UMPC and remain as a niche device. Loved, but not mainstream.

Steve

If he was smart enough he should be saying how good netbooks are.. and then say he can make even better product with his web tablet.

I will agree with you on the AMD response from a short while ago. They simply don’t have the architectural capability to compete in this market right now. I doubt they would avoid a market opportunity by choice. After all, they’re selling chips, not final devices.

I think it speaks to the fact that most people (consumers) don’t know these definitions exist, period. They don’t know what a MID is and they don’t know what a netbook is. They never knew what a UMPC was, for example.

In my opinion, people only understand things that differ a relatively small degree from what they understood in the past. Chippy made this argument quite a while ago (9-12 months ago maybe) when he noted that most of the devices that were coming out included keyboards. Why? Because the overall market understands it better. They understand a notebook, so they’ll understand a netbook. A web tablet will have a heck of a time convincing people because they’re going to look at this thing and think, what is it? A big iPod Touch?

It should be interesting.

much like the AMD guy did a few months back.

Their effort at creating a web tablet and their comments on netbooks speak to two different segments.

Netbooks have placed themselves as mini-notebooks. Nothing more. I own an MSI Wind, I know what it does well and what it doesn’t. Better than 80% of it is run-of-the-mill laptop. The 20% that is unique relates to configurability (Mac OS), size and battery life. Recent comments by Intel VP Stu Pann buttress this claim: “If you’ve ever used a Netbook and used a 10-inch screen size–it’s fine for an hour. It’s not something you’re going to use day in and day out.” You know what? I agree with that comment. I don’t tend to use mine for more than an hour at a time. I use my X60 laptop if I need more than that (like right now).

A web-tablet is a much different device. Most especially in their need for an improved user interface since it will lack your standard keyboard/mouse input.

I don’t know if TechCrunch’s effort at creating a web tablet will result in much success. Maybe yes, maybe no. There are no real comparative devices right now (slates under $500). But I look forward to seeing what might actually happen. It certainly can’t hurt.

Personally, I think this discussion speaks far more to the wide ranging definition of a MID than anything else.