April 18, 2007
Returning to the fold
Microsoft’s Origami Project was all about folding the computer into a smaller Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) shape. Now Intel is folding it once more into the even smaller Mobile Internet Device (Mid) format.
Intel has been talking about its products for this new Mids market segment for the first time at its Developer Forum in Beijing.
Unhappily for Microsoft, it sees a Lintel as well as a Wintel solution in this size of device. Anand Chandrasekher, head of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, said he saw Linux as an operating system alternative for Mids and announced the support of Red Flag and Canonical, a provider of the Ubuntu version of Linux, as the first OS vendors.
Microsoft and Intel have never been in lockstep over development of the UMPC category and Samsung, the other member of the triumvirate, diverged with a VIA processor rather than an Intel one six months after the launch of its Q1 in May last year created the initial UMPC fanfare.
Sales have also been far from stellar for the devices and Intel, with 1,000 engineers and a whole division now dedicated to Ultra Mobile, seems keen to exploit a further sub-category.
The Mids are one step above the mobile phone, where Intel made little headway and eventually abandoned its efforts to penetrate the market with its processors.
That does not inspire confidence that it can succeed in this unproven segment, which also bumps up against Palm-style personal digital assistants. But Mr Chandrasekher introduced a new Ultra Mobile platform of processors and chipsets and announced he was bringing forward its next-generation platform (codenamed Menlow) for UMPCs and Mids from late 2008 to the first half of next year.
He also announced the formation of the Mid Innovation Alliance, a collection of second-tier manufacturers including Asus and BenQ who would bring out Menlow-based devices next year.
Mids will be about the size of a paperback novel and will feature Intel wireless chipsets, including regular wi-fi standards and the wider area Wimax. Their smaller size will mean better battery life than the UMPCs, but that is about the only longevity for these devices we can safely predict.
