They were tiny, high-tech toys that promised on-the-go computing for road warriors. Leaving behind the laptop in favor of the Ultra Mobile PC platform, however, has also meant leaving behind performance, power and battery life. A year into Project Origami (the original code name for the UMPC), some wonder if it isn't just the latest in a long line of over-hyped handheld form factors.
"No one has yet to put forward a compelling use scenario for these devices," said Mark Rolston, a senior vice president at Frog Design, an industrial design company. "That's where great, or at least good, products come from."
With the release of its second-generation, 1.5-pound Q1 Ultra UMPC last week, however, Samsung hopes to bring some new credibility to the platform that it, along with Microsoft and Intel, launched early last year. Upgrades to the new unit include a QWERTY keypad, 1024-by-600-resolution screen and, on high-end models, 3G cellular networking.
"UMPC means different things to different people," said Bret Berg, Samsung's senior product manager for mobile computing products. "What we've heard from first-generation customers is that they're really looking for this traveling-companion device."
Shrinking CPU die sizes bring a "tremendous economy of scale" to bear on low-power computing, said Leslie Fiering, Gartner research vice president, adding that by 2009, we could see batteries that last all day, with devices costing well under $1,000.
While Intel and UMPC partners like Via Technologies develop new chipsets, however, the hardware is only half the picture.
"The UMPC is essentially a failure because it's still a generic PC with only the most superficial software added to make it work, barely," Frog's Rolston said. "With a form factor like this, what people need is a purpose-specific feature set and user interface."
Berg suggested that Microsoft has an opportunity to do one of two things: Either optimize Vista or offer a stripped-down operating system -- perhaps based on Windows XP -- that is more suited to the small devices.
"They know it's in their best interest to sell Vista-based platforms," Berg said. "(But) XP runs significantly faster on UMPC."
It's not the first time attempts to nail down the nature of handheld computing have run into trouble. The Handheld PC specification of the late 1990s is only a memory to most, dissolving over time as manufacturers tailored their own specs and Microsoft quietly stopped updating the official one. A similar fate may await UMPC should similar devices appear without the official imprimatur, or not appear at all.
Vulcan's FlipStart, for example, offers similar functionality, but in a unique clamshell design. The FlipStart does not conform to the UMPC specification.
NEC and Sony, two manufacturers with a history of making ultraportable computers, were noncommittal about their plans to produce UMPCs. Other manufacturers with UMPC plans include Fujitsu and, it is rumored, Dell.
"There's always hope with devices like this," Rolston said. "Like the PC, the original inventors didn't plan on where it would go. The market pushed it along with its own ideas. We can all hope the same fortune falls on the UMPC. Anyone got any ideas for this thing?"
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