IDF was a turning point for UMPCs. There’s no doubt about it. Having read thousands of articles on UMPCs over the last year I’m able to get a feel for how any ultra mobile PC announcement is received and based on the Internet based articles I’ve read, it much much more positive than at any time since the Origami announcements of 2006. In fact, considering that McCaslin isn’t really much more than already existed in 2006, its quite surprising how much positive press is out there. For many of the mainstream Internet publications there’s obviously a good story to be had with the whole ‘Intel snubs Microsoft’ story which of course, isn’t true. And there’s legs in some of the stories about Menlow devices in 2008 and the new, smaller, keyboard-laden form factors. Mind you, nothing has been launched yet so there’s still a great opportunity for reporters to kick the hell out of the segment just as they have enjoyed doing for the last year. No worry though. They can have their digg-baiting headlines any day of the week. Its the long-term that counts and I know we’ll all be having the last laugh in a year or two from now. In fact, I’m writing this article largely for myself as reference point for 2007 MIDs and below, I’ve listed all the devices that appeared during the IDF Spring 2007conference. It will be good to see what devices reach the market and funny to look back on it in a few years time. I’m sure we’ll be wondering why we might have been interested in devices with just 4 hours battery life!!! On to the devices then…
In total, I counted 11 devices that were shown at IDF. 8 were on stage at the keynote speech, the R2H was seen running Midinux as was the T-Swivel UMPC. The last was only seen in a presentation as a Midinux prototype.
From top left. ASUS R2H running RedFlag Midinux, Samsung Q1 Ultra, HTC Shift, T-Swivel (unknown brand), Haier X6,
Menlow prototype, Fujitsu UMPC, ‘Gaming platform’, Aigo, unknown brand navigation-focused UMPC, MIDLinux prototype.
The ASUS R2H we know about already. Its a good value hardware package but suffers from a bit of lag due to it being overloaded with OS. Midinux could give this hardware platform a new lease of life but there’s still the problem of the 2 hours thin battery or the thick and heavy 4 hours battery. Something tells me that the R2H won’t appear with McCaslin (Intel’s 2007 Ultra Mobile platform – UMPC2007) inside although ASUS are listed as a partner for Intel. Maybe Asus will release a new device later in 2007.
The Q1 Ultra was shown. This was aired in March at CeBIT 2007 where no-one would let on about the hardware it was running. It doesn’t really matter. When I tested it everything ran smoothly. I’ve ordered one already. Expected early June.
Then there was the device that brought me a huge shock. The HTC Shift. HTC, the company that has extremely close shareholder ties with VIA, has built its ultra mobile PC around an Intel platform. I’d love to know the story behind that. Did they start with a VIA design and run out of time? Did VIA bow to licensing pressure from Intel? I guess we’ll never know. I just hope that VIA pulls out all the stops now and gets itself in a position where it can offer HTC a platform for a different version of the Shift. VIA has its special event in June at the VIA Technical Forum so there’s a chance to get one back on Intel then! The Shift appeared on stage.
The T-Swivel device appeared again. This time it was seen running Linux and Windows XP. Its a nice design. I wish someone would spill the beans on it and tell us who’s making it and branding it. Info, hands on and video here.
Then there was the Medion…I mean Gigabyte…I mean Arima ULV 650 look-a-like. Its actually the Haier X6 UMPC. We already know that the spec on this was quite good but it had a sub-standard keyboard. The keyboard on this version looks different so maybe someone has sorted it out. If not then it doesn’t matter what’s inside!
The Menlow prototype was impressive. Very. It looks like a smartphone. Its actually a PC. There’s a video available that’s really worth watching and listening to.
The Fujitsu UMPC could be a very nice little device. This mini clamshell form factor device could be the modern Psion 5. I hope so. Everyone hopes so. Vista on a Psion5 size device. Who would have thought it?
Not much was said about the gaming prototype. In fact I’m quite surprised it was actually called a gaming prototype. Intel had previously stated that gaming is not part of the ‘ecosystem’ and I can quite understand that. Gaming is a huge market and there’s no point confusing the customer and threatening existing markets with a mini-PC gaming system until its really ripe and ready to make a big impact.
The Aigo UMPC looks interesting. Quite stylish. And yet, that sunken keyboard worries me. Shame that so much frame is wasted with the wings but I guess that you have to put the components somewhere!
The navigation umpc is an interesting one. For someone like me it could be really nice. I’m left handed and could hold it in one hand while using my finger to type and point on the left hand. If that’s a scrollwheel on the top then surfing could be a really nice experience.
As for the MidLinux prototype, lets hope its just a proof of concept device!!!
There you have it then. A rundown of the devices we saw at IDF. But there’s two more that need a mention because of their absence. The first is Wingman UMPC. This was used at CeBIT as a non-working demonstrator. It too is billed as a navigation device and has the same single-sided-frame layout as the navigation device shown above. Maybe this is a first-draft of the design? The second missing ultra mobile PC was the educational UMPC. This was talked-up in 2006 and was recently ‘promoted’ by Wendell Wenjen of Intel on his blog. Where’s it gone? Is someone hiding it until release?
That’s the 13 Intel-based devices. Some close to production and others just concepts. I don’t expect all of these to make it to the market in 2007 but it sends a good signal doesn’t it. If McCaslin is a bridging platform until he real deal is wheeled out ion 2008, can you imagine how many devices we’ll see at IDF 2008?
