This one has surprised me a little bit. I expect a certain type of MID to merge with the rising capabilities of smartphones but I didn’t expect 50% of people to agree that MIDs (ABI seems to point to big-screen devices that aren’t 24/7 devices) would be cell phone replacements. Have I been a bit short-sighted here? Are we getting to a point where a 4" or even 5" screen MID with voice capabilities would be acceptable as a smartphone by a significant number of people?
MIDs have been proposed by some as cell phone replacements. Does the public agree? In this survey, almost half did, lending support to models incorporating cellular voice, while 34% said they would continue to use a cellular handset.
“This is going to become a question for MID vendors and consumers alike,” says Philip Solis, principal analyst at ABI Research. “There will be little difference between a smartphone such as the Palm Pre which uses an OMAP 3 processor and a MID with cellular voice, except for screen size. Understanding of what consumers want from stand-alone MIDs without cellular voice will be important.”
The survey was done in the U.S. where, in my experience, there’s more acceptance, or even a demand for ever bigger mobile computing products and I know there are people reading UMPCPortal that are waiting for the all-in-one to appear. I may be underestimating this part of the market. Maybe ‘MID’ is the new ‘smartphone’? On the other hand, do the ‘public’ really know what a MID is?
February 3rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Posted a new article: ABI Research: MIDs as Smartphones? 50% said yes! http://tinyurl.com/ak66yp
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Wow! What an impressive revelation!
Hey, anybody knows about hot water? Oh, wait, I’ve an other great news for you: the wheel! The wheel is a…
Come on, it’s ridiculous that first MID on the market do not already implement it, at least using a BT headset considering that nobody would call with a 5″ thing on his face.
TDFS Reply:
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Oh, of course it was not for you Steve, you do a great work! It’s for Intel and similar… You know what I think
turn.self.off Reply:
February 3rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
on the BT headset thing, have you seen the comments on engadget each time they present a headset?
the only one that have gotten a somewhat favorable comment is the jawbone, and i suspect thats because they piggy backed on the iphone hype…
TDFS Reply:
February 3rd, 2009 at 5:34 pm
LoL, this is interesting. Generally I don’t have time to read comments but I’ll do
Actually if my MID would also call and send sms I think it would be a great thing. It’s 3G and it’s really a pity it can’t call… also a GSM modules is hilariously cheap
Of course I would not put a 5″ device on my face, at least, not in public
so and headset is the only solution as far as I know. I’m not the kind of man always wearing a BT headset, I don’t like it, but it’s pretty usefull in car.
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:59 pm
As a former N800 owner, I can absolutely say yes, I’d go for a MID with cellular voice service. I just got a used 1G iPod Touch, and I wish I could just trade it in for an iPhone. Having an all-in-one device is the dream. Call it a super-smart-phone, a MID with voice, a UMPCell, a WiFi enabled PMP with 3G VOIP – I don’t care – I want it.
A CPU powerful enough to give me the true – full Internet, with Flash
A GPU powerful enough for 3D games – PSP level or better
Enough storage for games, movies, and music
800 x 480 res or higher
4″ touchscreen
QWERTY thumb keypad
3MP camera (that can do stills, and video)
Thin and lightweight
3G with tethering
BlueTooth
WiFi G
USB 2.0 in and out
game controls would be a plus
GPS
accelerometer
video out (possibly through USB? think PSP Slim style)
I’d buy it. Name your price.
Chippy Reply:
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Sounds like the next Nokia Internet Tablet apart from the voice requirement.
ARMs licencees are talking about mids with voice. Ti especially.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I’ve just carried out a survey of my own and guess what? 100% of the people I surveyed said they may be or are, or maybe will be, thinking that surveys can be made to say whatever point of view the surveyer wants them to say!
Anyway, I have no problem sticking something big against my ear, I had a Jasjar for many months. What does it matter?
Chippy Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Nice one John.
turn.self.off Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 12:47 am
i would say something the size and, more importantly, weight of a N800 is the upper limit of what i would care to hold as a handset…
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I totally agree… With a BT headset the size is almost a moot point as long as it is pockatable or easily carryable. Also since I am most likely gonig to have a sim card for 3G data I may as well use use it for voice as well.
I hate that my iPhone has a perfectly good 3G data connection yet I still need a seperate data contract for my laptop’s data card.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Just a reminder that the headset would not have to just be an ear piece. It could be an entire, super thin, bluetooth handset which when done then slides into a slot in the MID. It could be very small and thin because all the brains would be in the MID.
turn.self.off Reply:
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:12 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3fv=IX-gTobCJHs
Chippy Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 12:26 am
…Or it could be a normal mobile-phone-style device. I’ve been looking for a BT device that looked like a small mobile phone for a while.
turn.self.off Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 12:45 am
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/8928/
February 4th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
With a BT or wired headset it is possible. I know Tadd from Msmobiles has used the HTC Advantage (5″ WinMo device) as a phone with a BT headset.
February 4th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I would love it if my OQO could also serve as phone via a bluetooth headset. The problem I would see is battery life. A phone needs to be always on to receive calls and text messages. I would hope this could be handled by a next-gen CPU.
Ultimately, as technology improves, I could see speech recognition (via the bluetooth headset) replacing the keyboard for text input and the screen becoming a separate unit communicating with the GPU via bluetooth 3.0. The processors and battery would become a pocketable brick which you would only take out to recharge.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
If MIDs are connected with wifi/3g then you can use voip for voice, so aren’t all MIDs voice capable anyway? The new Nokia tablet will have 3g, thus voip and video calling.
Do requirements/ restrictions for devices change if voice is included, rather than just data? i.e. testing, legal stuff, network lock down? If so what you like about a MID, mini computer/ internet, may change by adding voice.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
NVIDIA’s Tegra based phones will do all the things mentioned by Chad
February 6th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
MIDS need cell phone abilities if they are going to find a market as the mobile phones are able to just about the same now.
To me what I’d rather see is a pocket size MID/UMPC that runs full windows, has a touch type keyboard, and still will fit in a jacket pocket when folded.
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Thanks for the info… RSS feed added