‘New MeePC Line Features 8.9″ Display, Intel Diamondville Platform, GPS Module and More’

You might not have heard of FIC but if I say, Cloudbook CE1200J, S.Book 1 or Nanobook, you might recognise something. First International Computer (FIC), a Taiwanese company, are the OED (original equipment designer) for the CE260 which is the device that all those devices above are based on. They also make the Packard Bell Easynote XS20 [video review] and Cloudbook CE1200v non-touchscreen variants.

If you check out their web page, you’ll find reference to 4 new devices in a CeBIT-related press release that I totally missed. The CW060, CE262, CE263 and CE2A0 are the four variants mentioned under the, somewhat copycat, MeePC brand. [more after the break…]

Until a few days ago, the IDF Spring 2008 didnt appear to be the MID-fest that I was hoping for but after returning from a few days away at The Next Web conference and having time to read through all of the presentation slides, it’s clear that the MID juice was definately flowing. There has been progress in the technology, with Moblin, with software vendowrs and hardware vendors but I’m still left with question marks next to some of my more detailed queries.

The main point to come out of IDF and one that probably affected the detailed MID news was that the launch of Atom has been pushed out to June. This is two months later than previous Intel estimates and extends device availability way into summer. In most cases, customers waiting for the first hands-on reviews with retail devices are going to have to wait until July or August to finalise even early decisions. If there’s another slip of just a month or two we might even see marketing departments waiting until Autumn as they take advantage of the Christmas buying wave. The Olympics will also push a few manufacturers to get devices out in time for Asian marketing campaigns. Lenovo will be leading this as an official Olympic sponsor and the manufacture of the Ideapad U8. [More after the break…]

Highlighting the incredible progress of the netbook UMPC segment is a news article on CENS.com [who?] today. Here’s the big quote:

Inventec projects its single-month shipment of UMPCs to exceed 100,000 units for the first time in the third quarter of this year

Bear in mind that Inventec have nothing to do with the main netbook player, Asustek, so this is based on KJS (including Kohjinsha and Vye brands) and, if true, HP orders. I’m not aware of any other big sellers going through Inventec although i’m sure there are some less popular UMPCs being manufactured there.

Inventec are predicting a total of 12 million notebooks to be produced in 2008 so if we take the last quarter, the UMPC segment will account for nearly 10% of their production. If that’s echoed across the market and estimates of 120 million notebook sales are true (source: Intel/Gartner) then the UMPC market is going to generate 1 million devices per month by the beginning of 2009. It tallies with what Intel say about netbooks and keeps things on track for 50 Million market size by 2011 and most of the production seems to be happening in Taiwan where Asustek, Clevo, MSI, Inventec, FIC (MeePC/Cloudbook) and Quanta are all working hard.

Source: Cens.com. Slide: Intel.com (BPCS002 on this page) Thanks to FuturizeKorea for the tip.

If you turn up at a Web conference of 700 industry members and are the only person with a UMPC, what does it mean?

I went to The Next Web conference last week which was an excellent two days of stimulation. We heard talks from VC’s, from data portability experts, from startups, from established brands along with having a bit of fun with a live recording of Diggnation (the one with the spliffs!) and some comedy from Boom Chicago Amsterdam. All in all it was well worth taking a few days away for and it’s really encouraged me to get more involved with the European web scene at events like this. Although there’s a lot going on in Europe, a European can’t just  put a twitter out on a Saturday afternoon and expect to meet up with 50 like-minded individuals in the evening like people in the Valley can.

Worth highlighting  from the PMP perspective is the news that  Intel Atom along with the Poulsbo will enable a full HD playback experience. While reviewers have yet to see this in action, Intel are talking about 1080p playback performance [PDF] and have also announced that Real Networks will produce an optimised (chipset and finger friendly) player and codec-set for the platform. [News] I’m an Archos 605Wifi owner and it handles most content well but I certainly cant feed high bitrate or high resolution H.264 into it. As for the Internet […]

In a week where we’ve been bombarded by news (or Pyrotechnics as Richard Brown of VIA, calls it) from the Intel IDF, it’s important to remember the other side of the fence. Over in smartphone, pmp and pocketPC land, things are happening just as quickly. The PR machine isn’t as big but the products could be just as capable. GigaOm interviewed Qualcomm’s Dr. Sanjay Jha , COO and president of its CDMA technologies division last week and put a few interesting Ultra Mobile related questions his way. Stacey Higginbbotham asked […]

Intel have published their preliminary specifications for the 3rd-gen of the Classmate PC which should drop into the $300-$450 range and appear before the end of the year. Tablet features appear in the specifications along with a standard netbook processing platform based on Atom.  I’ve snipped a copy of the info from the PDF. Click the image on the right to enlarge.

The information, along with more detailed information about the 2nd-gen platform, is in the public PDF entitled CHLS002 on this Intel web page.

During the IDF, Intel announced that Real Networks will be providing a unified player and codec solution for Mobile Internet Devices. The Real player announcement is very significant because it completes an important part of the software puzzle. Linux, codecs and media purchases often don’t work smoothly together but if Real are providing a Real Player and a codec set then, problem solved.

The new RealPlayer for MID is the first media player on this platform that, out of the box, is enabled to decode most popular and standard media formats (RealMedia, Windows Media, MP3, MPEG4, H.264, AAC, AAC+, VC-1 and Ogg).

It appears that the OEM is able to roll-up the licensing for the codecs and into the cost of the device.

A primary feature of the new RealPlayer for MID is a simplified business model that covers licensing, royalties and reports. In addition, the application delivers bundled codecs and the ability to play browser content or use the application as a stand-alone media player, while preserving battery life with codec implementations optimized for MIDs based on Intel Centrino® AtomTM processor technology. Further, the solution integrates easily and runs on Moblin compliant operating systems.

Also note that the player is going to be MID-optimised. That means it will utilise the Poulsbo chipset to best effect. I read a slide today that suggests that a MID will be able to handle a 1080p video which, if true, will be class-leading for a handheld device and could blow away anything that Archos or Cowon are currently able to do with their dedicated media devices. Premium content (read, DRM + paid) will be supported through the player but I can’t work out if Real will be bridging to their own Rhapsody service or if multiple content providers will be supported.

Press release (PDF)

In related news, AOL announced that they will be providing a widget for MIDs that will provide access to Top 100 videos. The widget will be build in Adobe Air and the desktop version (shown right) is already available.

Press release (PDF)