UMPC Explorers! | Ultranauts.com

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The Origami team is conducting a UMPC usage survey. You can still participate if you don’t use a UMPC today. They want see how you might use one.

Oh, AND YOU CAN WIN 500 BUCKS. Go here, win moola, buy UMPC

http://origamiproject.com/blogs/team_blog/archive/2007/10/10/27737.aspx

I know what you’re thinking: Speak-n-Spell 2.0! Unfortunately, that’s not the case. What we’ve got here is the soon-to-be DOA StudentMate, a UMPC-like device that doesn’t really pass the test. Sure, it has a touchscreen and weighs less than 2 pounds. But that’s where things begin to go downhill…

“It has 128MB of memory, no HDD, but the memory is expandable by both SD cards and USB. As far as software goes it has a web browser, word processor, spread sheet software, contact list, a clock and calendar. For students there is also a calculator, typing tutor, home work helper, student summary list, and a mail client.”

Cool. A homework helper and a typing tutor? How very Mavis Bacon of the device to include some old-school keyboarding instruction. We could go on, but you can read more tragic “My1stUMPC” news over at Slashgear.

Nice little bit of marketing from the folks who brought us the UMPC Pro.

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It’s certainly not the the most appealing marketing attempt that we’ve ever seen, but the form factor sure does grab our attention. Let’s hope that the upcoming Eee is more proof that good things come in small packages (and it can run XP!). We’ll be watching this one closely.

All the juicy details can be found in the Press Release.

There’s an old saying that the only thing worse than a French person is a French-Canadian person. Of course, the staff at Ultranauts doesn’t believe in or support these “old sayings”… it’s just our job to keep them alive and kicking. And that brings us to the fine folks in French controlled Canada, who have sent word that they’ve started up a site dedicated to Canadian mobility, Tablet PCs, PDAs and the like. I can’t understand a damn word of it, but, if you can read Canadian, you might want to give it a look. Best of luck to the new kid on the block, mobileincanada.com! Make sure you say some nice things about the UMPC platform!

Warner Crocker has a nice post over at Gottabemobile.com where he argues that the Holy Grail of UMPC’s is now price. If you can price a UMPC in the range of an Apple iPhone* (used generically, don’t sue me too Cisco) they’ll be flying off the shelves.

You know what, I agree. But the fact that it’s all come down to price means a few things. It means that:

A) We’re over the processing power/memory/hard drive/resources hump. A Windows Mobile device at $600 wouldn’t be flying off the shelves, but a UMPC will. People are starting to get that these are real computers and you can do real things with them. The market seems to be saying that the specs are adequate, just not for the price.

B) We’re over the form factor hump. Sliding/flipping/twisting keyboards are here for those who want them and people are willing to take a chance on handwriting for $600.

C) We’re over the 1st generation hump. There’s always a chance with new devices that manufacturers don’t have the stomach to stick it out. Look at all the Pocket PC manufacturers that have come, introduced a model and quietly left the business. Samsung is aggressively adding models. Tablet Kiosk is adding models. Everyone now has a model that will run Vista. So the move to Vista won’t kill the UMPC and it looks like MS has really invested some resources to improve the UMPC experience.

Finally, it proves once again that consumers are not rational. The Apple phone is gorgeous, but it’s not a PC. Everything I read says that it runs OSX, the same way that Pocket PC runs windows. Sort of, but not quite. But you’re telling me that an Apple phone price (subsidized no less) is the sweet spot for a 1.5 lb full pc with handwriting recognition? We are screwed up. If I’m dropping $600 on one of my children it’s going to be for a PC, not a phone!

We all suspected that CES might be a UMPC breeding ground. But I don’t think too many people expected Big Bill himself to debut sweet new UMPCs as a major part of his CES keynote.

“As part of a speech scheduled for Sunday 7 Jan, company founder Bill Gates is expected to show off new approaches to the ultramobile PC (UMPC) format that is an attempt to straddle the PDA and Tablet PC categories.”

Yeah! Maybe this marks the transition point where MS begins to dumps some serious marketing coin in the UMPC’d direction. Read a bit more inf over at Computing. Let the speculation begin!
[Via computing.co.uk]