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UMPCbuzz had an interesting set of charts up over the weekend that took a look at how important keywords such as UMPC and TabletPC are doing in the wild, wild world of search engines. Presumably, the more searches conducted for a particular term, the more market interest there is for that term. And, of course, the fewer searches, then the less interest there likely is. It’s sound logic to me and good analysis by Layne.

So, the UMPC is doing pretty well. After a spike at the intorduction of the platform, there is some steady interest in the UMPC. The TabletPC doesn’t fare nearly as well. As shown above, the trendline for the term has been steadily decreasing over the last two-years. Is it a sign of a slow death for the TabletPC? I don’t know. I just know what the trendline says. And it says “death spiral.” But, to be fair, Layne does point out that the analysis doesn’t take into account all countries. I’m sure that if Iraq had been included, the trend would be reversed.

But I think we all know, deep in our hearts, exactly what is happening.

This particular little marketing problem with the UMPC completely perplexes me. Clearly, Microsoft and its partners had consumers on their brain when developing the UMPC … Just look at their promotional videos for the proof.

So why can’t I buy a UMPC in Best Buy or Circuit City or even Target? Sure they were available via Bestbuy.com for a bit, but that is a weak distribution effort at best.

UMPC Marketing Overhaul Strategy #2: Strengthen your retail channel presence… fast.

Where can you get a UMPC? From your friendly neighbor hood VAR of course. From who? I’ll say it again: your local Value Added Reseller.

Does the average consumer even know what a VAR is? I’m sure most folks reading this do, but, really, are we to expect that Sally Soccermom and Carl Collegestudent are going to go to a VAR, a distributor or a no-name online outlet for the next big thing in consumer electronics? Search the term UMPC in Google and check out the Google ads that come up… The only folks selling them are places that the average consumer has never heard of. Don’t click on the Ultranauts.com ad though. But feel free to click on the umpcbuzz or origamiportal ads a few dozen times. It will make them feel loved.

So the answer to this one is pretty simple. Fix the channel. Get distribution into retail… Both Intel and Microsoft have huge influence over the consumer electronics retail channel…. use it. The Xbox360 team was on The Apprentice tonight, partnered up with Wal-Mart for pete’s sake. Use that power. This is embarrasing. And once you are in the proper channels, make sure you do these 2 things:

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Sure, Sony maybe coming out with a new portable device, but just because it has a keyboard doesn’t make it a UMPC (in fact, no currently available UMPC has a built-in keyboard). The UMPC label is dangerously close to being completely useless. Should we call the long-rumored video iPod a UMPC too? Where does the line get drawn?

At any rate, this thing looks really, really small. It’s hard to judge from the pictures, but if that is indeed a standard memory stick on it, then this thing is likely much smaller and lighter than any UMPC that’s currently available. Now, just because it is half the size/weight of a UMPC and has a keyboard doesn’t necessarily disqualify it from the UMPC race.

But these two things will:

Now, I don’t know for sure if the unit actually lacks a Windows OS or lacks the ability to ink. I’d wager that one of the two comes up missing. It is an interesting, but awkward looking device to be sure. We’ll watch this one closely.

You can see some more pics and rumored specs via mobilitytoday.com.

Saying that an application is “now optimized for the UMPC” is a statement that falls into a bit of a marketing grey zone… was additional programming required? Or was an app merely tested on the new platform? Will there be an “optimized” version of Solitaire?

In this case, the answers probably don’t matter as this particular app screams for a UMPC. This application on a full-blown tablet seems too much, while the same app on a PDA would seem to be too little. The UMPC, as Goldilocks would say, is “just right.” So, I’ll overlook the questions of what “UMPC optimization” really means here and let the Digivey Survey Suite claim the coveted “First UMPC B2B Application” prize.

Is it really the first? I don’t know. It is the B2B first app that has been brought to my attention that markets itself as UMPC optimized (and when you buy the app, you can also get it bundled with a Samsung Q1… packages run $1800 - $3000 according to the app’s website).

So, what does the software do? According to Elisabeth Scherer, the co-founder of DIATOUCH (Digivey’s parent company):

“Our Digivey software is a survey and interactive marketing tool, designed for touch screens and optimized to work with UMPCs and tablet PCs. This type of software is for B2B use only but is a very helpful tool for marketing research, marketing and sales and a wide range of data collection applications.”

See more under www.digivey.com/surveysystems.htm

Well, the UMPC is on store shelves now. Ok, they’re not store shelves per se, but you can order them online… as long as they’re not sold out that is. But let’s say you managed to get one and you want to run some cool new software on it… but you don’t want to run just any old windows software, you only want software that has been either “optimized” (marketing fluff alert!) or created “specifically” for the platform.

To-date, your options are sparse. Let’s take a look:

We’re sure that we missed something in that list (at least, we’re hoping we did), so please send us a line and use the comments to let us and the community know what’s out there (remember, we’re only looking for “optimized” or “specifically developed for” UMPC software).