As time goes on and I speak to more and more people about whether a CE or WM5 browser could ever compete with a full desktop browser like IE7 or Firefox, I am more and more convinced that the mini-browsers just wont keep up. Even my LX800 Kohjinsha and Pepper Pad 3 have troubles with some sites now as they get fatter and fatter and more demanding on the processor. Even my own product portal requires a surprising amount of client-side processing to get all the java script working. (Has anyone tried the product portal on a smartphone yet?)

I’m getting less and less excited as each WM6 device comes out and each CE5 PMP device comes out. I pretty much dismissed the Cowon Q5 when it was outed at CES in Jan. There’s more info available on it today and lovely as it looks, its still got the very poor browser included which is just not going to compete with a UMPC browsing experience. I was discussing it with a friend today and he highlighted the HSDPA as a possible answer. Not because you can get content more quickly but because you can use realistically use it as a thin client using remote desktop (windows terminal services) to offload all the work on to a home PC. Ping! On goes a light! We had talked about it before and I’ve even used it myself on my parents old desktop PC but I had never thought about it as a solution for PMPs. A quick test here on my own web page via the Kohjinsha SA1 and remote desktop over a UMTS (350kbps)results in a page loading time of 5 seconds. Switching to the local browser resulted in a 10 second load time for the same deep refresh operation.

If you can imagine having a flat rate HSDPA tariff and picture yourself with a thin RDP client (its part of Win CE5) then what are you missing from the browser experience? Pretty much nothing. OK you will use a lot of data and flash videos will still be a problem (you could download them into your PMP!) but its not far off a real UMPC experience on a cheap, good looking device. At half the price of a UMPC, its really worth looking into and I’m seriously thinking of dropping this into the database as a possible Ultra Mobile PC solution.

My interest in PMP’s has been rekindled somewhat by this thought today and I’m quite convinced that I need to buy one to test out this remote desktop theory! Anyone know where I can buy one in Europe?

I feel like I’m beaing beaten around a room here but its all for a good cause. It seems that the posts today about pricing of the Q1 Ultra have finally shaken the real pricing and availability info out of Samsung. Yes, I’ve been wrong twice about this today but this time I feel confident!

Samsung have told our contacts that they have now fixed their Q1 roadmap and that the base Q1 Ultra with HSDPA will be offered for 1200 Euro. I’m almost reluctant so say that again because it sounds too good to be true. Especially after all the pricing chaos of earlier today. But as I’ve been assured that this is the final price and 100% conrrect info, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it again.

Q1 Ultra with HSDPA – 1200 Euro. Availability in May 2007

Apparently this information is ready to be published and we should see some confirmation in the next few days.

The Tablet Store Germany (the hard working middlemen in this story) have already adjusted their site and are offering the Q1 Ultra at this price (unbinding price offer apparently!) I feel confident about the price now and have already placed my order.

Apologies to Samsung for my less than friendly reaction to the 1800 Euro price earlier. I hope you could feel my frustration then and I hope you can feel my happiness now!

Update: I’ve just come off the phone with The Tablet Store. We’re both a bit confused about this new price and are coming fast to the conclusion that Samsung either really don’t know whats going on or are testing for reactions. If its reactions they want, lets tell them what the price should be! I’ll be setting up a poll in the forums about this. You can make your vote (see top-right on the portal homepage!) and we’ll make sure Samsung see the results.

update 2: New Samsung pricing info here. Now at 1200 Euro!

——

I was seconds away from ordering one. The shopping basket is still open on my screen here with a price showing 1500 Euro. I was just waiting for confirmation on what my options would be if the price changes. and then I got an email with a corrected guide price.

1800 Euros!

Because of my enquiries, the Tablet Store have doubled checked with Samsung on the guide price (I have to give them credit. They have been doing a lot for me this morning!) and have now adjusted it on the TabletStore website. I’m now out of the market for a Q1 Ultra and I have something to say to Samsung. Before I do though there’s even more bad news. The Samsung Q1 Ultra is now planned to be launched in the middle of 2007. Q3 I’m told.

Samsung. Why did you stand in front of me and hundreds of other journalists at your product launch and talk about a price that will be comparable to the existing Q1 when you didn’t really know what the price will be. It appears to me to be a very weak marketing trick that was used to generate good press, initial customer excitement and competitor worry. You must know that the long term results of being ‘tricky’ aren’t favorable and because of your silly over-enthusiasm, hundreds of your customers and hundreds of my customers now have to start from the beginning again in their quest for the right UMPC. I dare say that the Samsung Q1 Ultra won’t be in many shortlists because of your over enthusiasm.

The Q1 Ultra is a lovely product and I guess it will sell (or promote sales of the base Q1!) but even as a person who’s business it is to use UMPCs, I can’t justify that price. Its definitely off my personal shortlist and I’ll be looking more closely at the Amtek T770 which, at just over half the price, is now looking like bargain of the year.

This is bad news for consumer UMPCs. It makes me wonder what sort of price range the other new McCaslin based UMPCs are going to come in at and whether Samsung intend to move any of the other Q1 prices down.

Update on pricing. It looks like it will enter the market at 1200 Euros.

Although prices, availability and even the final specification of the Q1 Ultra haven’t been nailed down yet, there’s one reseller out there already prepared to take pre-orders based on a price of 1500 Euros.

The Tablet Store in Munich, Germany, an established retailer of tabletPC and UMPC products, has put up details of the Q1 Ultra WITH HSDPA and estimates availability to be somewhere around the end of May or early June. For US I would apply the usual product exchange rate of about 1:1 $1500 Recommended price sounds about right. Timescales must be similar to Europe as Samsung are planning a global launch for this product.

I’ve been in contact with The Tablet Store and am awaiting some definitive feedback on this. They haven’t come back to me with it yet but I’m expecting some better contact tomorrow (today was a holiday here in Germany)

One product that will fix the low-end of the pricing range for the Ultra is the new Q1b HSDPA which is due soon in Germany and other Euro countries at around 1300 Euros. Its a VIA-based device so the Ultra has to come in above this price and to preserve the market for the Q1b HSDPA, it has to come in at least $100 more. Unless of course the Ultra doesn’t appear until June. In that case the Q1b has a chance to sell for two months as a unique product and then drop in price. A price drop would also mean some knock-on effects with the base Q1 but there’s no reason why the base Q1 cant drop down another 20% in order to stimulate the market and generate some positive press.

Aside from the pricing issues though, the Q1B ultra is possibly the first HSDPA-capable tablet UMPC and possibly the cheapest Windows XP PC with HSDPA on-board. Actually I’m surprised none of the cellular carriers and resellers here are offering it with data contracts. Maybe that’s to come soon?

Samsung Germany also have a web page available on their German portal. Availability is estimated to be about 2 weeks. Detailed specifications and further links on our product pages.

While things are quiet on the UMPC news front, I’ve been updating the product database.

Firstly, there’s  very nice ‘as you type’ search box which helps a lot when looking for a particular model or feature. Try typing in ‘vist’ or ‘sams’ to get a set of matching devices.

Secondly, I’ve been working on battery data. In some devices you will now find the battery capacity in W/hr format. Additionally, where I’ve done tests or have been able to get good test results, I’ve added drain rate figures which have allowed me to calculate real-world battery life figures.  

In the coming days I will try and get this added to the comparison window so that its easy to see which devices have the longest battery life.

VIA’s Director of International Marketing is supporting the possibility that the UMPC market could grow to 10% of the global PC market by 2010.

In his personal blog Richard Brown writes:

I see no problem at all in this segment accounting for 10% of the overall PC market by 2010

I still don’t think its going to be that big in such a short time. I’m taking these figures as marketing figures. They have that built-in ‘encourage the market’ factor! I hope that I’m wrong though. A 300% increase will keep me busy for a while and might even earn the site a few pennies along the way. Pennies that I can plough back into buying, testing, opening up and breaking all the newest UMPC kit!

Note: In my previous post on the subject I made a calculation error. The global PC market is around 250 Millions units. Not 500 Million units. (Lucky I’m not a product manager eh!) Here’s the updated graph:

I bought one of these last month and managed to get 10 hours life out of my Kohjinsha SA1 with it. Its good. Really good. It will power most UMPCs, it powers my mobile phone and even looks good. How many batteries look good?

Kerry Woo has published a full review at Gear Diary which is miles more detailed than mine! Worth a read through if you’re considering buying one of these from Tekkeon or TabletKiosk

Via GottaBeMobile

In the Origamiproject.com forums today, I read that Jacksonian was researching the new UMPC release schedule. Although now might not be the best time to make a decision (there will be an announcement on April 18th about new UMPCs) it’s still worth a look so I’ve prepared a comparison page showing all the new and planned UMPCs. 14 UMPCs in total. Hope you find it useful.

Click to see the interactive comparison page

Don’t forget to click ‘Show hidden criteria’ to reveal all the details. More details and links are available for each device on the respective datasheet. Just click on the images to see the detailed page for each device. The new ‘as-you-type’ filter can be used to refine the list.