In the Gates / Jobs interview at D5 last year, Gates said that flexible displays were about 5-years out if my memory serves me correctly. Screen-size is one of the stumbling blocks getting in the way of smartphones moving into other product categories, including personal computing, and if the problem was solved it would only leave processing power and battery life issues to be solved before smartphones really could become the only device you need to go mobile with.

IDG New service is reporting today about a 5" folding screen that could be one possible solution. PC Advisor is running the story and reports that the concept design, by European design company Pilotfish, is based around a real, hinged screen developed by Taiwan’s publicly funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI.) The interesting thing about the screen is that the hinge is actually a display element. Apparently a touchscreen version is in development which just leaves the issue of a customer to find. We’d estimate a 3-year timeframe before you saw this on any device but I’m sure smartphone ODMs will be interested in this one in order to take their portable device to the next level. See PC Advisor for another image of the device ‘closed.’

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.

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

The XPERIA X1 [Portal page] which Kornel got to play with several months ago is getting more attention as of late. Below is a video of the XPERIA X1 getting unboxed and in addition to a size comparison to the HTC Touch Pro, there is also a short bit of UI action. The packaging looked pretty simple, but good enough. A smartphone like the X1 may seem a bit out of place here, but we have been hoping that the Windows Mobile shell that Sony designed would help the X1 function more like a full-internet-experience MID than a Windows Mobile smartphone.

Though after seeing the video I can’t say it is too promising at this point… the switch from portrait to landscape/keyboard mode is transitionless but still manages to take a noticeable amount of time to switch between the two. The panels interface looks nice, but again, when the panels reorganize themselves when moving from portrait to landscape, there is a noticeable section of lag before they find their new positions.

[Engadget]

An interesting article over at PCMag.com has author Tim Bajarin asking “Who would want to buy a Mobile Internet Device?”. Throughout the article, Tim explains that he doesn’t quite see the function of a MID, or how it might fit a consumer’s needs.

After reading the article, I think this is another example of how over-defining a category can confuse consumers, and even those who closely follow news in the market. This is another question of who is defining what, but it really comes down to what the consumers think. Tim says that MIDs are trying to fit into a product class gap that isn’t really large enough. He describes the MID category as a ‘tweener’, or something that is in between two already well defined device categories. In the case of the MID, Tim says the flanking devices are the laptop and smartphone.

But I’m still not convinced that the MID as defined today will ever become a booming market. All of the virtues of a MID actually ended up in smartphones, which became the killer mobile category.

If you really think about it, Tim seems to be saying that MIDs are just phone-less smartphones. But what about those with WWAN? If a MID can make a VoIP call over WWAN, is it then a smartphone? It would seem as though MIDs are moving in the direction of smartphones, but are more powerful, and share more of their genes with the computer. With full fledged applications, a stronger web browsing experience, and the ability to make calls (via WWAN), it sounds like the MID is actually a much more capable device than the smart phone.

I find it interesting that Tim mentions his iPhone in the article as his go-to mobile device. I actually consider the iPhone to be, not only a MID, but one of the best MIDs currently on the market (partially helped by the fact that most MIDs haven’t hit the market yet!). The fact that the iPhone offers a much richer and fuller internet experience than most other smartphones (if you want to call it that) bumps it up from the smartphone category and into the Mobile Internet Device (in my opinion). The iPhone is almost the inverse of a smartphone; it isn’t a phone that happens to be able to browse the internet, it is a Mobile Internet Device that happens to be able to make phone calls.

In a time such as now where most smartphones aren’t exactly the best convergence devices, touting around a very powerful MID for internet consumption, and a decent feature phone, sounds like a good strategy to me. And what say you readers, why would you buy a MID?

Sony Ericsson today released the second revision of the XPERIA X1 White Paper (PDF) detailing many technical aspects of the upcoming XPERIA X1 (hands-on preview here). The document covers the X1i and X1a models. Here is a partial list of changes from the first version of the paper according to inxperia.com –

• Quad-band EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Tri-band HSPA:
• X1a: (850/1900/2100 MHz)
• X1i: (900/1900/2100 MHz)
• X1a model supports MPEG4, H.263 24fps encoding at QVGA only and not H.264
• Size: 110.5 x 52.6 x 17 mm (formerly 110 x 53 x 16.7 mm)
• Weight: 158g

Swing by inxperia.com for the rest of the list, and feel free to download the paper yourself with the link above.

It looks like Arne Hess over at theunwired.net got his hands on a pre-release HTC Advantage X7510. He has posted an unboxing video for anyone interested in checking out this new version of the X7500. The X7510 doubles in SSD storage capacity from the X7500’s 8GB up to 16GB. Other notable changes — the unit is now running WinMo 6.1, the d-pad on the front left of the device has been removed, and the keyboard has been redesigned with a completely flat touch based input keyboard. The keyboard helps alert the user to key presses using haptic feedback in the form of a small vibration when a key is pressed as well as an audible noise. I’m not sure how well the new keyboard will work, haptic feedback definitely helps, but initial tactile sensation (ie: physically raised keys) is probably the greatest benefactor to a good typing experience. I’m not sure exactly what kind of technology is being used to detect keyboard presses, but if it is capacitive they could capitalize on it greatly by featuring an intelligent correction system like that of the iPhone’s. Unfortunately for some, recent news has told us that the X7510 will not end up for sale in the US. Click the image to head over to the video unboxing page.

Opera Mini usage overtook use of the slow S60 browser on my N82 a long time ago due to its easy to use features and the way it renders pages but mostly, because of it’s speed. It uses a man-in-the-middle server to provide cached and optimised versions of pages that are transmitted using proprietary technology, not HTTP, to the client. Its not perfect but it works well for the average ‘browsing’ session. Version 4.1 has just been released and it brings a feature that I was missing from the S60 browser - URL history. It’s also a little faster although not that you’d really notice it in general use. I’d love to have a version of this for Windows so that I could run it on a UMPC if data usage was tight (when roaming for example) or when I’m in a fringe area and down to GPRS speeds but alas, its not available. Why don’t they build that feature into Opera desktop? It would be great to switch into proxied mode when needed.

jkOnTheRun have a list of the other new features which include web page saving (again, something I was using on the S60 browser) and more. If you want to upgrade your phone, point it to http://www.operamini.com/