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In a recent ‘Thought Leaders’ study by Phil Hendrix of IMMR, a number of (US-based, I believe)people were asked the following question:

Three years from now, among individuals who own or use a PC, cellphone or smartphone, at home or work, what percentage do you think will have purchased a MID, again, by Q3 2011.

The average prediction is that by Q3 2011, 33% of these people will have a MID.

I know what you’re thinking. ‘No way.’ That’s what I thought until I read their definition of a MID. The IMMR definition of a MID is:

MIDs, or Mobile Internet Devices, are a new class of devices/PC’s that offer many of the features of a PC, but at 1-3lbs. are lightweight and portable enough to easily carry and use virtually anyplace, at any time.

Its not the definition that Intel use but its certainly the definition I’m hearing from ARM, Ti and others that regard even netbooks as mobile Internet devices. Based on that definition, I totally agree with the ‘Thought Leaders,’ whoever they may be.

A complimentary copy of the report, titled ‘The M in MIDs stands for Mobile’ and sponsored by GigaOM,  the GSMA mobile Innovation Market and InMobile, can be downloaded from the IMMR website at www.immr.org and it’s an interesting read covering more than just the penetration question. There are some quotes from the respondents included too like these two that I hear a lot: "Someone who has an iPhone right now, essentially has a MID already" and "With smartphones taking on 80%+ of MID-type activities, it will be tough to convince people to carry yet another device."  So if the iPhone is a MID and more voice-enabled MIDs are on the horizon, what are we arguing about? Based on this segment of the market alone I’d say we will reach 30% penetration by end of 2011. Add netbooks into the mix and it’s almost a certainty but for me, the even nicer thought is imagining the hundreds of variations of mobile Internet-enabled devices that will appear.

Related article: MID, a definition that is hard to ignore.

The Samsung NC10 is currently riding high. High in the UMPCPortal charts, the most searched-for laptop on a number European price comparison sites, number 2 on the Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de computer chart and rising quickly in many other countries. In my opinion, based on my hands-on and the numerous good reports out there, its one of the best consumer notebooks, yes, notebooks, there is and when I go to the UK in Dec, I’ll be keeping an eye out for a black NC10 with 160GB drive, BT and built-in 3G. If I find one (fingers crossed that this combination of specifications launches soon) then I’m swapping out my Gigabyte M912M and Medion Akoya. I’ll be sad to let the fast, touchscreen M912 go but battery life is more important for me and the NC10 has oodles of it.

Someone that has already bought one is Jez, a regular reader from the UK who I’ve been emailing with recently to find out about the status of the device in the UK. He bought it last week and immediately started to log his experiences on his ‘Unofficial Samsung NC10 blog.’ He’s also been kind enough to write an introduction just for us so before you pop over to the NC10 blog (and possibly never come back!) take a look at what Jez has to say about the NC10…

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JKK kicks off his ‘SSD-Week’ with a highly recommended 18-minute video introducing solid state disks (SSD), their advantages, the difference between MLC and SLC, explaining wear-levelling and the different connectors available. He gives some recommendations about read and write speeds to look for, talks about SSD life and gives some nice demos. He also teases us about some new device that he has lined up for later in the week.

View the video over at JKKMobile.com

I guess Wired are still hooked-up on the original Origami device definition and forgot to take a second look to see how things are evolving rather than dying. From UMPCs came Intel’s dedicated McCaslin platform and then Atom, of which the next iteration will be voice-capable and will span phones to netbooks. Meanwhile cellphones have been trying to become MIDs, UMPCs and netbooks by advancing in the other direction. The real story here seems to be that personal mobile Internet devices are being born!

I have to admit, I’ve thought of changing back to the original ‘Carrypad’ name a few times in the last year and if weren’t for the mobile laptops and MIDs, we’d probably have gone under a long time ago! The Origami-style UMPC market does indeed remain niche.

Thank goodness its all about ‘personal’ computing though and that the ultra mobile space covers a wide area, is growing like mad and will offer exciting choices for everyone. Every device is a winner for someone, even if Wired say they’re dead!

Five gadgets that were killed by the cellphone.  (Via Loren Heiny)

As you might have seen from the initial hands-on review, the Aigo MID brings a new level of Internet browsing to the pocket.

The results beat a previously tested set smartphones and other pocketable ‘Internet’ devices by an average 9 seconds per page. In terms of Internet browsing performance, it blows the N800/N810 out of the water and even the iPhone only averages 20 seconds per page over WiFi. [Aigo averages 12 seconds] The only pocketable device that gets close is the new Archos 5 with an average, over a similar set of tests, of 15 seconds.

It does pretty well on video playback too with higher-bitrate files really taking advantage of the high-quality screen. Its just a shame that the media software is so basic. In my opinion, Video, Search and Browsing are the most important elements of a MID’s capabilities so lets see how the Aigo P8860 performs. Videos and notes below…

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After you’ve checked out our new video presentation, take a look at our hands-on report and at other peoples opinions by checking out the river of links for the Aigo MID. Pocketables and JKKMobile both have reviews and videos in the can. The reason I say this is that the Aigo MID device may not be for you. It’s not a bad device at all, I’m loving it more every day, but I just wanted to warn you that this device is something that will appeal mostly to the hardcore mobile Internet fans, mobile Linux developers and gadget-lovers out there. If you want a device, a platform and a software stack that offers you the best Internet experience and an exciting Linux-based playing field, the Aigo is a superb choice and arguably, the only freely-available choice today.

OFFER CODE: 14I6-U7AR-Y6HK-CARRYPAD

Mobilx have very kindly set-up a 5% discount code for us that you can use by clicking through the image above and ordering in Euros or Dollars using the code shown. The device is in stock right now and Mobilx can ship one out, globally, via DHL Express.

Coming tomorrow: Aigo MID video performance demonstration. (My notes are here if you can’t wait.)

Umid of Korea have kindly sent over a set of new images and the official specs of the nice looking clamshell device we saw a few weeks ago. It’s due for official launch in ‘early of 2009′ which hints towards CES or CeBIT. Pricing is unknown but with those pro-level specifications I would expect it to be more than the Aigo MID variants.

We’ve added all the details to a new UMID product information page so feel-free to browse the specs, the gallery, the links, see what devices are similar in specification (Fujitsu U2010 is probably the closest competitor in terms of form-factor but the Aigo MID comes closer in size) and take note of a few things. 1 - The battery is 17Wh which, given the lower processing power and smaller screen when compared to the U2010, should give it a 4hrs+, active-online battery life. 2 - The size. It’s much smaller than a U2010 so this one should be easier to slip in a jacket pocket.

Thanks to UMID for sending the details over. The device isn’t on the UMID website as we publish this but there’s obviously a placeholder there. No pricing or territorial info available at this stage.

You’ve read the theory, now hear the reality about how SSDs work together with modern netbooks and UMPCs.

JKK has a bunch of SSD articles lined up this week in his sites ‘SSD Week.’ Testing, Q&A and from what I’ve heard, maybe a new product or two!

SSD Week, all this week and JKKMobile.

The MID market is really starting to build up steam in and its fairing-up to be an exciting Q1 2009. Here’s the latest entrant under the ‘next-gen PMP’ banner as presented by Pocketables. With a possible ARM-11 core, this may not be the powerhouse required by many pro-mobile users and if the media experience isn’t up to scratch, it probably won’t compete well with the Archos 5G but it at least proves, again, that mobile devices are evolving towards a better mobile Internet experience.

Read what Pocketables have uncovered here.

Following through behind the ARM / Ubuntu announcement last week is another shot in the direction of Intel’s MIDs. Adobe’s Flash 10, probably the most commonly used multimedia plug-in in the Web world and a significant part of the full web experience, is coming to the ARM architecture. Not only will you be seeing full Flash 10 support on the next generation of evolved smartphones and mobile Internet devices based on the ARM Cortex core which are starting to trickle in now via specialist devices such as the Archos 5, Open Pandora and the next generation Nokia Internet Tablet but existing ARM11 architectures will also see a port. In addition to the Flash 10 announcement, Adobe have announced that AIR will be available so applications like twhirl and the ebay app could end up in your hand within the next year.

The press release talks about being able to ‘remove the barriers to publish content and applications seamlessly across screens.’ and points towards the website - Openscreenproject - that was announced earlier this year.

“Adobe Flash is the leading video format on the Web today, and this collaboration with ARM is another important step towards bringing the complete Web experience to mobile devices worldwide,” said Gary Kovacs, general manager and vice president, Mobile and Devices at Adobe.

Read: TGDaily

Read: ARM Press

Thanks to Mobilx.eu I’ve had the Aigo MID for a few weeks now. I put a fairly lengthy post up a few weeks ago explaining where this device fits in but now it’s time to give you an overview of it in action.

Here’s the video, made with very little preparation so you get to see a few problems with the device too.

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Just shown at the AMD 2008 Financial Analyst day are a few slides and details about the new mobile computing platform known as Yukon. It’s due for release in the first half of 2009 and will use a dual-core processor called Conesus.

From the diagrams and the presentation being given as I write, I get the feeling that AMD are not aiming at the low-end of the netbook market but more at a fully-capable ultra portable notebook market. I guess we’re talking Windows-7 capable ultraportables with good graphics capabilities very much like the new Dual-Core Turion-based, Raon Everun Note I’ve got here and have just benchmarked at twice the processing power of an Intel netbook!

I’ll be honest with you. I’m not sure what value this has for potential UMPC, Netbook and MID customers but its fun to look at!

It appears on the product overview page (which I’ve recently updated with more data columns and now has over 220 devices in it) and it shows rising and falling popularity relative to the top device. For example, the HP Mini was gaining on the Samsung NC10 when I generated the graph. The graph is updated daily.

One tip: Click on the arrows and you see the last 140 days popularity and how far away the device is from #1 spot.

I just choked on my cuppa! Euro 1450 for the ASUS R50a is a shocking price. Even more so when you know that Vista isn’t very spritely on the 1.3Ghz Silverthorne processor. The R50a is said to have a fairly fast SSD which will help a lot but still… Maybe this video will help you decide yourself. I’m off to wipe my screen down!

All R50 links, specs and resources in the product page.

Via JKKMobile.

The crossover is finally happening. The smartphone CPU designer is moving into the PC market while the PC CPU designer is moving into the smartphone market. 

ARM are announcing a partnership with one of the best-known names in desktop Linux and are making a very significant move into the world of low-cost, low-power, connected computing with Canonical who will port the full desktop version of their Ubuntu OS to the ARMv7 architecture ready for release in April 2009. 

Press-release and more, below.

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