OnlyUMPC have a link to a really interesting cost breakdown for the component parts of a ultra mobile PC written by Linda Epstein of TabletPC2.com.
Its a great post and goes through exactly why UMPCs won’t reach $500 in a short space of time and why the economies of scale haven’t kicked in for the market yet. I said similar things in a post the other day about incubating UMPCs.
There are going to be something like 100 million notebooks sold in 2006. I’m guessing that Origami ultra mobile PC sales will reach about 0.01% of that so can you imagine the differences in the price of component parts and the cost-per-unit of tooling, production and marketing. Its huge.
I’m also a believer that the price needs to stay high for a bit to give resellers a chance to find their feet in marketing these devices. Its a costly exercise to have to spend an hour with a client to show them the advantages of mobility!
Well done Linda on a great article.
Steve /Chippy.
