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Old 03-10-2006, 03:36 PM   #16
Alexander Turcic
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So basically follow the X-Box strategy: sell at a loss in order to gain global market shares. Well, that could work. Unless someone else steps in and provides a better more innovative product for less money.
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Old 03-10-2006, 04:10 PM   #17
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I've got to think that a UMPC at $600 is a much better buy than an iLiad at the same price.

And when you realize that Microsoft/Intel's goal is to sell 100 million of these devices by 2008 — that will drive the price down to where we all want it — well, that leads me to believe that people who buy an ultra-mobile and read on it as an afterthought will have more to say about e-books than those people who buy specialized e-reading devices.

I mean, you're carrying around a device with a screen that's loads better than a Palm for reading a book, you've got time to kill during the day — sooner or later you're going to think, Why don't I have something to read on this? Isn't that similar to the thinking process that brought many Palm users to e-books?

100 million seems an outlandish number to sell, especially considering the cries of "Overpriced!" and "Underpowered!" and "Buy a laptop!" But we have had many years to experience the excruciating flaws of PDAs and laptops. UMPC's do well whatever those other devices do poorly, whether it be quick email or web check (instant-on, WiFi) or just let me run this one program while I'm traveling so I can finish my report without having to lug a laptop (full OS).

It doesn't have to be as powerful as a laptop. it has to have a large enough screen to surf the web comfortably (no scrolling sideways!).

There's a big market here. And e-reading program plus portable device equals the central advantage of the printed book.
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Old 03-12-2006, 01:58 PM   #18
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UMPCs aren't smaller TabletPCs

Is it only the form factor that makes the UMPC dissimilar from the TabletPC? Your short list seems to say so.

Yet that wouldn't seem to justify bringing out this "ultra-mobile" and pushing it so hard.

I think we have to look beyond today's models — we won't see larger models in future but only smaller, and less expensive. I don't think people would even ask How is it different? if the 5.5-inch models had come out now.

Of course, the market for the UMPC is radically different than the TabletPC's. This isn't a laptop substitute for somebody mobile like a doctor making the rounds; it's intended to supplement your other computer(s) and do what they don't do well — access the internet instantly from spots where you don't have (or don't want to bother with) your laptop, and see a whole web-page's width (unlike a PDA).

Today, the devices have VGA and Ethernet connectors and hard drives, but people will find they don't need them. Those sorts of things will drop away as the untethered web is refined in people's minds (and as WiFi clouds become more common and Web 2.0 tools like Writely solidify).
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