At the end of Spring, I published a ‘watchlist.’ A report on what we should look out for in the ultra mobile PC market during Summer. 3 months later its time to give it an update.
New Nokia Internet Tablet.
No new news on this one I’m afraid. I’m still confident that something will happen for the Christmas market although the probability is going down with every week that passes.
Probability: 80%
My guess on specs: Late summer release. $550. Slightly bigger screen. Better processor. Linux based. Keyboard.
Samsung Q1 with VIA processor.
“This one is strictly a rumor” I said. The rumor was true. The Samsung Q1b looks like its headed for the UK market in October. Other markets unconfirmed as yet. Priced above the existing Q1. Its possible that good battery life on this device could be why the price has been set high.
Averatec told us in June that the AHI was a “work in progress” and that we should look for news at the end of Q3 with a launch soon after.
This one has appeared in the U.S. and Europe as the Tablet Kiosk 7200 series. The 7210 is due to be the first Pentium-M based (and there for the most powerful) Origami UMPC. Look out for my reviews on this one as I’ve ordered one. It should be arriving this week.
It turned out to be the Pepperpad 3. (OK I got the name wrong. I can’t get everything right!) Due for launch in Sept. Based on AMD LX800 processor.
Its now available. Watch out for a review from Carrypad in Sept.
I said ‘ho hum” last time. I’ll say it again. Ho Hum. No real news about this. Some people have engineering samples.
Its finally been confirmed on the ASUS global website but as-yet there’s no press releases, prices or availability info.
Price wars.
Price wars started with the AgoPC being introduced at 15% less than equivalent devices already available.
Its quite a shame that the watch list is nearly empty now and the chances of more devices appearing before Christmas are now getting slimmer. The next big ‘event’ in the ultra mobile PC calendar will be CES in Jan and we should expect to see the first rumors starting to appear for that during Oct and Nov. In Dec I guess it will be time for the CES Watchlist.
Regards
Steve / Chippy.
tags: umpc
Steve:
Some thoughts on your watchlist:
1. Nokia IT – I agree with you that we’ll see a new version out soon. I also think it will be the last version. At US$550 it’s too close to the lower end UMPC/UPPC’s coming out (example: the Vega @ $710) in price, and no where near a UMPC in capabilites.
2. Sony Mylo – biggest question mark of the almost UMPC market. I don’t think that Sony will put the marketing muscle behind it to make a real difference.
3. 2B1 (aka CM1, aka OLPC) – If the powers that be give in, and release this to the market, all bets are off.
4. Price War – short and meaningless
5. Distribution – big question, will UMPCs be picked up by mainline retailers (online and brick & mortar)
Just some predictions and thoughts.
Michael