There are a number of companies lined up here to present their software and solutions. 4.5 mins per company.

I’ll try and summarise each one here.

1. Navteq

Digital map data provider promoting their developers network. Free sample map data available. API available for location based traffic and advertising.

Also promoting the Global LBS challenge.  Prize pool is $8.2 million in cash and licensing.

2. RX networks. Promoting their GPS-enhancing solutions.

Improving lock-times, indoor performance for mobile devices.

Products:

3.  Dial Plus

Enhancing phone calls with contextual information by using internet channel while you make a voice call.

Pulls in info from chosen social networks and cloud services.

4. Speaktech

Facebook and Twitter app for moblin.

5.  Accuweather.com

Working to provide weather data from 2.7 million locations in 38 languages. Working to get that on Intel MIDs.

6. Fluendo

Developers of Gstreamer open source media framework and codecs.

Have been working to optimise the codecs for Menlow and Moorestown platforms.

7. Discretix

Security applications for MIDs.

8. Aricent.

Independent design house for mobile and consumer devices.

9 Good technology.

Push information technology.

Working with Intel to provide push info/mail/social networking services on Moblin.

10. SNR Labs.

Providing radio control (control of 3G, Wifi etc) for power management and hand-over.  Working with Intel on Moorestown platform.

11 Asianux

Midinux linux solution for MIDs. Midinux 3 is launched.

11 Wind River.

Subsidiary of Intel working on UI development and Moblin 2.0 compliant OS builds.

Live demo of MID UI (video to be added) on Inventec Moorestown MID (first ever public demo)

12 Scalado

Imaging solutions solving issues of picture timing, panoramas, image enhancements. Providing slick gallery and slideshow solutions. Upload and sharing solutions.

13. Ixonos

Software services company for mobile industry.

Also capable of full hardware design of mobile devices.

14 Mobile Sorcery.

Cross-platform development product MoSync.

15 Axel

Axel provide a single user interface for multiple mobile TV formats. Terrestrial and over Internet.

16. Nuance.

Dragon naturally speaking. Speech technologies.

Demo Dragon naturally speaking on Linux. (Acer Netbook)

17 Skyhook.

Hybrid
location service provider. 30-40m accuracy in 2s, 90% of the time.

18 Maxim.

Designing analogue and mixed-signal ICs. Offering an audio and power solution for Moorestown.

19 Freescale

Offering audio and power management solutions for MIDs

20 NEC Electronics

Providing power management ICs for use in Moorestown.

And that’s it for the presentations today.

Entertainment, Location, Communication and Productivity along with the highest quality internet experience possible on fast hardware and a focused operating system, in the pocket. That’s what Intel is aiming at with their MIDs and that’s pretty much what Nokia, with the help of Texas Instruments, have just launched with their Maemo-based N900.

It’s clear that the high-end, consumer and web-focused MIDPhone market will have more than one player and there’s still a long way to go before the N900 can be marked as a solid product but based on the specs, the form factor and the operating system it’s fair to say that Nokia have beaten Intel into the ‘MID’ market, stolen some credit and are well positioned to bring out more OMAP/Maemo 5-based products into the MID market.

By building a Linux-based operating system with a Mozilla-based browser on an advanced CPU with advanced graphics capability they’ve nullified some of Intel’s arguments and made it harder for Intel to differentiate themselves. I’m sure that there’s some re-writing of IDF keynotes going on right now to try and address it.

What Intel will have to do with their Moorestown-based devices in 2010 is create and highlight clear advantages for the customers, designers, manufacturers and software vendors.  Processing power is still an important card and Intel still have that in their hand. It’s nigh-on impossible to accelerate the retrieval and rendering of web pages so CPU power would really be noticeable. There are web runtime components such as Flash and Air to consider too but these issues are being resolved in the ARM community. On the applications side one could argue that innovation in the smartphone sector is richer than that which we’re seeing on the desktop so when it comes to the thousands of Linux apps built for X86, it’s kind of a dead argument. As for the developer challenge, I don’t know. Growing a huge but cheap dev community has it’s downsides so Intel / Moblin may find it an advantage that they don’t have an app channel.

As I mentioned above though, this market is not going to belong to one or two players as It’s going to grow rapidly and there will be opportunities for everyone. It’s now clear that the MID market is real and Nokia, along with Apple, could prime the customer base nicely for 2010 and beyond. Every time the man-on-the-street sees a fast, accurate representation of a desktop-style website in a pocketable form factor it is free marketing that anyone could take advantage of. Intel don’t need to change their focus on that MIDPhone and let us not forget that they have their fingers in many pies with the Atom product. Netbooks, Internet TVs and the automotive industry are all growing too.

We’ll hear more about he N900 next week when the first hands-on reports come back next week (I’m trying my best to get down there but it’s not working out right now.) and we’ll hear about Intel’s smartphone strategy in a few weeks at the Intel Developer Forum so it will be very interesting to see how people react once the excitement has faded in October.

As Sumocat has already pointed out, the results are hardly surprising. If you want to buy a MID in the US, you have to search very hard indeed.

ARS Technica took a list (supplied by Intel Marketing) of MIDs available in the U.S.  and went on a search. The list of device list was hardly complete…

• Archos: 9″ Tablet
• Clarion: MiND
• Fujitsu: U820
• Panasonic: U1 Toughbook, H1 Toughbook
• UMID: m1
• Yukyung Viliv: S5, X70EX

There’s only one place on the internet you’ll find a complete list of all UMPCs and MIDs so it’s easy to find the ones that were missing [Full list below] but that’s not the point of the story. The point of the ARS Technica article is that you can’t find many devices in normal channels. It’s true and it won’t change until distributors get some confidence that they can actually sell stock. This is an incredibly niche market we’re working in here and until better products reach the market with better operating systems and some marketing support from Intel, I don’t think anyone is going to be throwing thousands of dollars at marketing themselves and buying large amounts of stock.

I was speaking to Mobilx today and they have the same worry. There’s no point buying 500 MIDs until you see a no-risk demand that means you can shift stock in a reasonable amount of time. With companies like OQO, Raon Digital and Wibrain going out of business, that risk of being left with a shelf full of products that aren’t going to get marketing or after-sales support is way too high. We agreed that despite Windows XP being useful and productive, XP is boring is becoming a hurdle in the consumer market. That needs to change and that the time is running out. Intel needs to get Moblin/Moorestown products out ASAP because Android, Maemo and ARM have already reached the MID market.

On the bright side, don’t forget that US is not the primary market for MIDs and we’re very close to the main IDF event of the year which means all the news and marketing has already tailed off in preparation for the next wave. In just 6 weeks we should be getting updates on products, platforms and software and with voice-enabled Moorestown and Moblin, it’s a very different proposition this time round.

List of MIDs on next page…

Be careful how you read this story. Some people are taking it as meaning there will be no more Z-Series; possibly forgeting that there is a Z-series market outside the netbook market.

Only last month, Intel told me that Menlow (the platform that uses the Z-Series CPUs) will continue alongside Moorestown. I understand that this is because Moorestown won’t initially support Windows products and Intel need an offering for the Windows-based ultra mobile market. A small market, yes, but a growing one.

There’s one aspect that we need to consider though. PineTrail could be so close in architecture, size and power requirements to Menlow that PineTrail becomes the platform used for Windows-based ultra mobile devices until Windows-capable Moorestown variants come along in 2010. It seems unlikely though based on what we’ve heard.

All will be answered when I go to  IDF is September though so you don’ t need to worry for too long.

Intel to suspend Atom Z sales to netbook makers, say sources.

Back in Feb, I listed a set of devices that should be high on your list if you’re thinking about mobile microblogging. It included MIDs and UMPCs. As the market for mobile social networking, mobile web search, mobile content creation, location based services and lifestreaming (my rough definition of Mobile Microblogging) gathers steam we’re seeing more and more devices coming into the segment and it’s mainly from the smartphone sector. UMPCs and MIDs aren’t getting a look-in. In fact, in my latest list, below, you won’t find a MID or UMPC.

Smartphones with bigger, higher resolution screens and high-end processors are appearing on the radar almost every week. Smartphone-based mobile software development is increasing too as more and more mobile device application stores tempt developers with easy-to-use, rich SDKs and APIs, a channel that reaches right down to millions of users devices and a good cut of any earnings.

What’s really interesting about the Mobile Microblogging phenomenon is that very little software development is happening for today’s Intel MIDs, the very devices that were targeted into this segment. Intel have stopped work on the Moblin OS for them and they’re effectively UMPCs. You could even argue that there are no Intel MIDs any more! They are being totally left behind in both software and hardware until Intel push the reset button when Moorestown MIDs with Moblin hit the market. Until then, it’s desktop operating systems for MIDs and UMPCs.

You won’t find an easy-to-use, small-screen, GPS-enabled search service on Windows. You can’t even link Google Maps to a GPS on the browser. Forget the thought of a compass helping with augmented reality, an accelerometer, an FM receiver with RDS or, if you’re into internet photography, a half-decent snapshot camera. There’s no application store either. Only on smartphones will you find the creative software and hardware that is driving the mobile microblogging market and making it exciting, fresh, competitive and, quite frankly, desirable.

Moblin-based MIDs do have a chance as do Maemo 5 based devices but you won’t find any on the market yet so it’s going to take time for the developers to warm to those platforms. Come back in 2010 to discuss that!

Apple and Android have done a lot for the new generation of mobile internet devices and usage scenarios and so it should be no surprise to see smartphones dominating this Mobile Microblogging segment to the point where UMPCs and MIDs don’t get a look-in. UMPCs and Netbooks still have big  advantages for general purpose, day-to-day productive computing but if mobile creativity is your thing, there’s nothing better than the new generation of smartphones.

One could argue that smartphones have grown into the MID segment but for me it was always about usage scenarios rather than device categories. As Intel said, communication, location, entertainment and productivity. It’s a shame that Intel’s MIDs aren’t living up to their own hype yet. (see my recent Moorestown article for thoughts about 2010)

(continued on next page…)

Don’t get too excited at this stage. No products. No software. But at UMPCPortal we’re excited to see these two huge mobile computing and communication companies work together on a mobile computing project that will create the next generation of mobile computing products.

Key elements of this ‘technology’ announcement:

• Nokia and Intel want to co-develop a new class of Intel Architecture based mobile computing devices.
• Collaboration in Open Source projects. (Maemo and Moblin)
• Intel acquire Nokia HSPA device license.
• “Leader in computing. Leader in mobile communications inch coming together.

Note that this announcement has nothing to do with WiMax or Symbian or any part of the existing ARM relationships.

From the Press Release…

SANTA CLARA, CALIF., and ESPOO, FINLAND, June 23, 2009

Further uniting the Internet with mobile phones and computers, Intel Corporation and Nokia today announced a long-term relationship to develop a new class of Intel® Architecture-based mobile computing device and chipset architectures which will combine the performance of powerful computers with high-bandwidth mobile broadband communications and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.

Full press release is here.

‘No comments’ on specific products or timings.

For the end-customer, somewhat boring but clearly a significant boost to Intel’s Ultra Mobile ecosystem and something that will have significant impact on devices in 2010, 2011 and beyond. In terms of software, if Nokia move to Intel architecture then they will have to shift Maemo over to a Moblin core. Expect Maemo to branch into two within the next few years. This is all about high-end smartphones, social networking, video and back-end systems.

Already in my calendar yesterday was a short-notice conference call from Intel. Apparently they have an announcement to make. This morning I woke to see the keywords Intel and Nokia streaming through twitter and google reader. The rumor is that Nokia will be using Intel inside.

I assume this is a Moorestown product win which means it sits alongside the LG announcement for a 2010 product launch If this is true, it’s a really significant step forward for Intel in the Ultra Mobile and smartphone market.

Questions to be asked:

• Is it going to be voice enabled?
• What operating system (Moblin, Maemo or Symbian)
• Are Nokia simply testing the market and technology (in which case i’d expect it to be in a next-gen Nokia tablet rather than a  phone)
• If it’s a tablet, does it mean that the OMAP3-based tablet is scrapped?

The rumor comes from Bloomberg. The press call is at 1130am EST. Expect news on UMPCPortal as at breaks.

Jkk has tons of video coverage of the now finished Computex 2009. Here he has an interesting 17 minute video of a Q&A with Intel’s General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher. Jkk also rounded up a list of all the people in attendance, as follows:

• Our very own Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine
• Joanna from LAPTOP
• Johannes from NewGadgets.de
• Frank from SomewhatFrank
• Charbax from TechVideoBlog.com
• JKK from jkkmobile.com (working the camera)

An interesting watch if you want to understand how Intel is handling the upcoming Moorestown platform and have a chance to see and hear from some prominent members of our blogging community.