MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Computer companies can not get the form factor right

mobilesalesman · 12-27-2007, 04:50 PM

UMPC's according to IDC in a recent Forbes article said only 350,000 UMPC's were sold in 07' including all the 7" devices and devices like the OQO. That was due to MS pushing everyone to go with their belief that 7" was the ideal size and their vision in hardware was what everyone would buy and they are not even in the hardware business.

Now Intel has several new chips for mobile umpc's, mid, etc. They are saying it will run windows or any OS but are pushing Linux.

To me even Intel is missing the focus. They sell chips they should be enabling the chips and promoting hardware folks to be creative and design what they think the market wants rather than trying to influence it.

What has been missing since computers were created is a simple pocket laptop with at touch type keyboard that could run all the same applications your desktop could. The UMPC technology has provided the technical abilities to create such a device and Intels new chips further the ability, yet to this day there has never been such a device. There are over 113 million notebooks sold each year with a enormous base of users already whom prefer a touch type keyboard. Many business users would love to buy and own a pocket laptop instead of a bulky laptop or subnotebook but there is nothing to buy.

Will 2008 finally bring us a jacket pocket size lapop? or will hardware companies miss the obvious and desing devices with the wrong form factor?

12-27-2007, 04:50 PM	#1
mobilesalesman Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: HP Jornada 728	Computer companies can not get the form factor right UMPC's according to IDC in a recent Forbes article said only 350,000 UMPC's were sold in 07' including all the 7" devices and devices like the OQO. That was due to MS pushing everyone to go with their belief that 7" was the ideal size and their vision in hardware was what everyone would buy and they are not even in the hardware business. Now Intel has several new chips for mobile umpc's, mid, etc. They are saying it will run windows or any OS but are pushing Linux. To me even Intel is missing the focus. They sell chips they should be enabling the chips and promoting hardware folks to be creative and design what they think the market wants rather than trying to influence it. What has been missing since computers were created is a simple pocket laptop with at touch type keyboard that could run all the same applications your desktop could. The UMPC technology has provided the technical abilities to create such a device and Intels new chips further the ability, yet to this day there has never been such a device. There are over 113 million notebooks sold each year with a enormous base of users already whom prefer a touch type keyboard. Many business users would love to buy and own a pocket laptop instead of a bulky laptop or subnotebook but there is nothing to buy. Will 2008 finally bring us a jacket pocket size lapop? or will hardware companies miss the obvious and desing devices with the wrong form factor?