It was June 2007 when we first got excited about the Mobile-ITX platform from VIA. It promised PC-like performance in a small and efficient motherboard and it looked like it would allow slicker, more efficient UMPC designs. Since then, Intel introduced the Menlow platform which does pretty much the same thing. It allows handheld, efficient, low-power small form factor computers. Over 2 years later, VIA finally announce that the Mobile-ITX platform will….actually it’s difficult to say. If you read the press release, it’s presenting information on a product that will be announced in Q1 2010. As for availability, maybe it takes another 2 years!

As least it will give Intel some competition and help to drive prices down but with UMPC operating system choices narrowing to Windows 7, this (1Ghz indicated) C7-based processing board (not complete motherboard) might be too little, too late for ultra mobile PC fans. Mobile-ITX looks like it will be a better fit in the place where VIA are aiming it; the embedded market.

via Pressemitteilung: VIA Mobile-ITX Referenzboard offiziell vorgestellt | Netbooknews.de – das Netbook Blog. [English press release and images available]

More information available from VIA  here. White Paper [PDF] here.

Article 1 – Digitimes reports that HP ordered 500,000 VIA C7’s and also placed an order for Nano CPUs.

Article 2 – Mobile-ITX is on target for Q4 2008 or Q1 2009.

I’m afraid the source trace ends at Digitimes for this story and there’s really not much detail here. The Nano order could be for Notebook PCs or it could be for a new HP2133. It’s anyone’s guess. As for the Mobile-ITX news, it’s just another target date. Sit-back and keep waiting with your fingers crossed!

With a launch obviously timed to coincide with Computex next week and positioned to take advantage of the incredible growth in the low-cost mobile notebook market, the OpenBook Mini-Note, on first look, seems to be a much better product opportunity than the Nanobook was. While the Nanobook and Eee PC launched together one year ago, it was the Eee PC that stole the show based largely on price indicators but also on looks. With the OpenBook Mini-Note, VIA appeared to have attended to the important issue of aesthetics and using what looks like it could be a masterstroke in the pin-compatible Isaiah CPU, extended the market placement from low-cost netbook right up into an area of the market that neither Intel’s Atom or Core can currently operate in. Low cost, highly mobile Vista notebooks. Read on for images, video, Q&A and analysis.

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