For someone who quit his job and risked part of the family income on the term ‘UMPC’ its not surprising that I give the occasional thought to whether the ultra mobile PC market will continue to grow! The related meme that started on Friday was an extremely interesting one to follow. It was kicked-off by Gizmodo who asked ‘Subnotebook vs. ultra mobile PC vs. Netbook: WTF Is the Difference?’ Engadget and a number of other websites followed-up.

Looking at all the posts and reviewing all the tags against analytics, trends and search results, it does appear that ‘UMPC’ is now established as a commonly used search term, especially in the last 9 months. In comparison, the terms netbook, subnotebook and mininote appear to be almost background noise and the search results are certainly not clean. MID is a common search term but again, it doesn’t return usable search results. Its future as a marketing tag is questionable although Intel do appear to be putting a lot of weight behind it and it could change quickly. I suspect it will shake out to be a commonly used term before the end of 2008. After scribbling around on paper for a few hours, this is what I ended up with as a simple definition for 2008. [More after the image…]

 
Mobile device segmentation – 2008.

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‘Desirable’ is the word and I base that thought purely on the looks on the MSI Wind, just as a large percentage of netbook buyers are going to do. I’m almost trying to convince myself that I need one after watching this video. More momentum to MSI’s marketing efforts as the rocky waters of Computex approach.

Oh the power of a decent Internet video!

Click through to the Crave video. More info on the MSI Wind available on its product page where you can also check out the alternatives.

Two posts in a row that pick out errors in other peoples reports. I’m starting to sound like a CrankyGeek! I will be more positive. I will be more positive. I will….

Fudzilla briefly tested the 1.6Hz Diamondville version of the Atom processor and don’t appear to be too impressed.

“… the CPU doesn’t really do well in multi-media applications. It doesn’t even render that well, as Cinebench was incredibly slow, slower than we’ve seen in years.”

But then they say this:

the CPU is great for surfing, typing, instant messaging and listening to music. It even plays videos just fine

Which is exactly what it’s meant to do! The features are in the size, power-efficiency and mainly, cost, not in the performance figures.

With this new CPU running 60% faster than the previous generation it gives marketing teams a nice little advantage but when real-life performance doesn’t get anywhere near what’s expected of a 1.6Ghz CPU, managing expectation becomes a bit of a problem. I don’t think it’s Fudzilla’s fault that they’ve focused on performance first.

Related: Don’t expect miracles from Netbooks.

Source: Fudzilla review.

With a launch obviously timed to coincide with Computex next week and positioned to take advantage of the incredible growth in the low-cost mobile notebook market, the OpenBook Mini-Note, on first look, seems to be a much better product opportunity than the Nanobook was. While the Nanobook and Eee PC launched together one year ago, it was the Eee PC that stole the show based largely on price indicators but also on looks. With the OpenBook Mini-Note, VIA appeared to have attended to the important issue of aesthetics and using what looks like it could be a masterstroke in the pin-compatible Isaiah CPU, extended the market placement from low-cost netbook right up into an area of the market that neither Intel’s Atom or Core can currently operate in. Low cost, highly mobile Vista notebooks. Read on for images, video, Q&A and analysis.

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Its Nanobook version II! Bigger, more powerful, more stylish, using an open-source hardware design and aimed right where Intel have left a gap. The VIA Openbook reference design that you might recognise as the Cloudbook Max, has just been launched.

The VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design introduces a host of new innovations, including the next generation of VIA Ultra Mobile Platform, based on the VIA C7^®-M ULV processor and the new all-in-one VIA VX800 digital media IGP chipset. Together, this ultra compact, power efficient platform delivers richer computing and multimedia features, including a stunning 8.9 inch screen and greater video playback support, in a compact and stylish clamshell form factor that weighs just 1kg.

The VIA OpenBook features a flexible internal interface for high-speed broadband wireless connectivity that provides customers with the ability to select from a choice of WiMAXâ„¢, HSDPA and EV-DO/W-CDMA modules appropriate to their market. In addition, under a unique collaborative approach, the CAD files of the external panels of the reference design are offered for download under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license to give customers such as OEMs, system integrators, and broadband service providers greater freedom in tailoring the look and feel of their device to meet the diverse needs of their target markets.

There’s three important things to take note of here.

• The CAD files for the hardware design will be available to OEMS which will really help reduce cost and time to market.
• There are two internal module options. This provides excellent flexibility for radio options. Just slot in a new module and you have a 3G-enabled product for your market
• Not mentioned in any of the launch materials – the Isaiah upgrade path. You can bet that this was designed with Isaiah in mind and that it will scale to desktop-replacement speeds when Isaiah CPU is available as a CPU option

I see a device that can compete in the ULCPC space (XP Home, sub $500) with the VIA C7-M and the enhanced VX800 chipset and very importantly, a device that can create a brand new space for low-cost premium Vista and 3G-enabled devices when combined with an Isaiah CPU in the near future.

More analysis coming up on this later but in the meantime, you can read more information at VIA new website – www.viaopenbook.com

Update: Specs and links now being tracked in the OpenBook product page.

Following the introduction of what appeared to be a value-pack in the UK where the 600Mhz non-bluetooth Q1 Ultra was being packaged with the keyboard and organiser pack for 500 pounds [aff link] , it appears Samsung Germany are dropping prices too. The price for the 800Mhz Q1 Ultra, 60GB, 1GB with XP at Amazon.de has just dropped from 1100 to 899 which brings it nearer to the 850 price of the R2E. The HSDPA version is steady at 1200 which is very expensive in comparison now.

200 Euros is a great price saving but you’d think that after one year of sales, Samsung would have some flexibility and drop it into a consumer pricing zone. 900 Euros still isn’t attractive to most consumers.

Compare it to an Eee PC 701 and you get these features with my estimated end-user value in brackets.

• Higher screen res + Touchscren (100 Euros value)
• 60Gb storage (50 Euros value)
• Bluetooth (20 Euros value)
• Lighter and smaller (value depends on user but no keyboard offsets that.)
• XP Tablet edition (100 Euros value)
• 1GB RAM (50 Euros value)

That’s a total of 320 Euros value for 600 Euros higher cost. Personally I regard the Samsung Q1 Ultra as a much better device than the Eee PC and I put a very high value on its mobility and flexibility but for most people, that’s simply not the case.

Update: Marc points out that the 600Mhz version in the UK can be had for 449 pounds (565 Euros) making it very comparable with the Eee PC 701 + 40Gb HDD + XPTE + Touchscreen + Higher Res + 1GB upgrade + Lighter and smaller.

Here’s a question: If the Q1 Ultra was 599 Euro, which would you buy. The Q1 or the Eee PC 701?

Samsung Q1 Ultra Pro 800 Besar 7 Zoll WSVGA Tablet-PC (Intel Pentium 1GHz, 1GB RAM, 60GB HDD, WinXP Tablet PC Edition)

Most, if not all of you reading this will have heard of the Firefox browser and many of you will have tried Firefox 3.0 beta. I held back from using it for a long time because it was beta software but the latest release candidate seems stable and has me converted on all platforms now. Firefox 3.0 is fast. Firefox 3.0 is memory efficient. Firefox 3.0 has great features and overall its a clear winner on ultra mobile PC and netbook platforms, especially when using online applications.

Like Safari, it appears from my test results that Firefox 3.0 can process java-heavy pages on a Ghz-class ultra mobile PC faster than the data arrives over my 6mbps Internet connection which means that for rich Internet applications, the bottleneck is at the remote server and there’s very little else you can do to speed up the experience. Apparently, java processing in FF3 is many many times faster than in version 2 so this explains the big improvement with online applications. Not only is the speed improved but there are some great features that will appeal to ultra mobile PC users too. But first, here’s some test results. I took 5 devices and ran speed tests on 3 browsers [*1] using reader.google.com as the target page. It’s a java-heavy page and there’s no flash or major numbers of images to process but its typically my slowest-loading browser application. It represents a typical online application and for web-workers, its a good, tough benchmark.

More info after the jump…

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The 901 is ussemed to be the Atom-based version of the 900 which makes sense but isn’t 100% confirmed yet. There aren’t any more details to accompany the images either but I feel sure we’ll see more of this and many other Atom-based devices at Computex in a few weeks. It looks nice apart from the shiny plastic buttons up by the battery. I’m sure it’s going to look even better in black though.

Blogeee.net have a whole load of images so check out their site.