According to PCMag, Intel are forming the Mobile Internet Device Innovation Alliance (MIDIA) which, I assume, will become the focal point for Intel’s ultra mobile PC ecosystem group headed by Pankaj Kedia. There’s another report just out from Cnet’s news.com saying that Canonical (Ubuntu,) and RedFlag have already signed up to the program. Ubuntu is a big player in the consumer Linux distro market and could really lend some weight to the process of speeding up development. If Maemo and Gnome joined then there could be some really interesting things happening. Gnome are making an announcement on the 19th. I wonder if it has anything to do with MID GUI development.
This ‘ecosystem’ could move a lot faster this time round. Microsoft’s Origami project was a good starting point and has prepared the ground (and provided valuable market research feedback) for the next phase of work. I believe that the consumer / business split is the perfect move for UMPCs and the focus on an optimised OS is going to really help. If teams from Maemo, Gnome and the MIDIA get together, there might just be enough momentum to get the UI and apps polished up enough for a huge consumer marketing push in 2008.
