To Mid or not to MID?

Having spend some time around the OQO 2, a short amount of time with the Compal MID (Specs) as well as first steps with the Clarion Mid (Specs + see the longer HD video) I am still the newbie in the bunch of us four. Meaning: It is still not 100% clear to me when a mid is a mid. Is it when there are different components on it and you would not call it a smart phone or a net book? Is it a MID when it has an Atom processor on it? And does it really matter?

You could say "Nicole you could have researched this a little bit!" and you are right. But it is only so few times when I don’t have any prior knowledge of the involved technology that I wanted to go the route of a ‘normal user’. And the normal user does exactly what we did during MBC09 conference: look at other people’s gadgets and then make a decision based upon touch, weight, maybe if it has a keyboard or not etc. But not "if it is a MID / smartphone / net book". Have a look at the video Heike Scholz from Mobile Zeitgeist made available and try to spot the Mids:

[The nice voice in the background with the slight accent btw is Steve in German. ;)]

So after playing around with the OQO my current definition of a MID is this:

Better than a smartphone, because of a real operating system, sometimes with a camera or GPS, sometimes with a keyboard, bigger than a smartphone but smaller than a net book and it has probably an "Intel Atom inside" sticker on it.

No, it is not convincing to me either. ;) What I came to realize thought where other things:

• I never knew it, but I really want a smaller device with more power when on the road, not necessary with a keyboard but with a real Windows on it to have an easier and more productive time. Even if I only travel occasionally, I am not 100% connected all the time.
• I also want a cheaper ‘notebook’. In 2005 I paid 2.200 € to have my Lenovo tablet. I never really used the tablet functionality (except for gaming where you can cheat with a stylus over somebody using a mouse). It is too big and too heavy at 3 pounds to carry around, I still need an extra phone and a microblogging device and I rather have something smaller and cheaper with me. Today’s gadgets would allow me for half the price to have 2-3 gadgets whcih are way more powerful and would suit different needs and situations. Like a real phone, an additional small "twitter a bit and check mails" device which can be switched on with the press of a button and a small netbook to replace the tablet.
• Devices have to be connected. Not with the cloud up on the internets but my cloud: my apps, my productive setup, my ecosystem of tools. The world has to revolve around me, and my gadgets have to fit into this right away another reason why it may be nice for many to have linux on these mids but I need windows. We can talk about if it needs to be XP / Vista or WIndows 7, but I need windows (see also (You had me at Windows …").
• Mids and other small devices have different modes of being operated. On the road, at home, with or without net connection, on battery or connected to power … We all have different needs and ideas about what works or not, which will make it more different for manufactures to produce for a smaller base.
• I happen to be using english quite a lot and much of my work is done in the english sphere- otherwise these gadgets would be useless to me in their current form. Why? Try öäüß. Or áàéèóò and co for others. German does have the advantage that you can write ae instead of ä and ss instead of ß but still it is not the same.
• I have to set up different models in my mind and find the right gadget combination for each job. Plan first, set up, execute. Which can mean that I will need to buy some new gadgets. *cough*

The following ‘plans and setups’ should work better for me with a Mid than with a smart phone or netbook:

• setting up the system with a direct remote desktop system like Windows Live Mesh
• using data backups with File syncing tools like Dropbox and for example a spreadsheet
• be the quick ‘download your fotographs from the device, sort them and upload the relevant ones’
• be a small podcasting station with an USB microphone
• run your emails with something like Google Gears and Gmail
• be a secondary device when doing live blogging from an event
• using iTunes on a mid for podcasts so that when you are on the road travelling, you can use your one Ipod and still stay up to date with your podcasts

Any more suggestions from you? :)