arghyle

I just noticed an interesting point/counterpoint over at Cnet and JKontherun. A Cnet editor, David Carnoy, posted an article called “Why you’ll never buy and ultramobile PC” which clearly caught the attention of UMPC fanboy Kevin Tofel, the K of JKontherun. Tofel responded with a few interesting rebuttals and was nice enough to offer to have his article posted on Cnet (which it wasn’t).

While each brings up a few good points, I am inclined to agree with Carnoy. First of all, the vast amount of people I have talked to (aside from tech writers) have not heard of the UMPC despite its being around for some time now. Secondly, many of those people who are familiar with it still don’t understand the form factor- “why not get a notebook” most ask. When someone inevitably responds with the fact the these are more compact than a notebook (and this is barely true in the case of something like the Fujitsu P7230, the P1610D, or Panasonic R6) then most people just wonder why it is a better option than a BlackBerry or smartphone. Carnoy also mentions the price, something he overshoots because he is looking at high-end Sony UMPCs, but this is still a factor considering how the device is a “tweener” as is pointed out in an extended sports reference.

JKOTR’s rebuttal post has a few valid points, such as how UMPCs actually start out at $800 to $900 and that the UMPC is still a new product so it has not had time to develop. I think the proper response to this second part would be to wonder if it will ever get chance to develop given consumer’s lukewarm response to it, but realistically too much money has been invested in marketing and development to just let this form factor die. Ultimately Tofel seems to think of the UMPC as part of this tech arsenal, not an alternative to a laptop or a smartphone (maybe one to a ultraportable tablet?).

Considering this last point the UMPC seems like a very expensive purchase and one restricted to people who spend a lot of their computing time away from the desk. Looking at general consumer usage lots of people don’t have notebooks (or have a notebook but never move it). Of those mobile users only a small percentage will consider buying a second computer, and even a smaller percentage of those will be interested in coughing up the money for a UMPC when they can just get an ultraportable computer or tablet in the near future thus avoid having two computers and the pitfalls of the UMPC. Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that most people, even most of Cnet’s readers, will never own a UMPC.

Personally I am looking forward to seeing the UMPC develop though this is mainly because they will be running Linux soon, something I have been waiting for the UMPCs first came about. I have been the most impressed with Sony’s UMPCs so I am glad they were used as a reference, but I don’t think they are necessarily representative of the entire form factor. That said, I think there will be some big changes this year, with the Linux announcement and Intel’s 45nm processors so something is going to happen it should happen soon.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS