UMPC Site

Ultranauts published a small interview with Director of Marketing for TabletKiosk, Gail Levy. It’s two parts.

Part 1
Part 2

Ultranauts.com: What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen done with the eo so far?

Gail: As for the coolest thing I’ve seen… I’d have to say that it is people’s reactions when they first see eo. They cannot believe how small it is, and when they see the Dial Keys in action, they immediately want one of their own.

Doesn’t this answer also mean that he didn’t see a cool thing done with eo?

We,all UMPC lovers, must be broke. The news and comments about 700$ UMPCs don’t stop. “Intel is the reason of pricey UMPCs..” , “Samsung is making a VIA-chipped UMPC to make a lower-priced UMPC” and even “what are you selling for UMPC?” …. I believe most of UMPC fans are already Tablet lovers and hardware enthusiasts. I don’t think we orbed ; we were following up Tablets, PDAs, PDA-phones etc. And if we are saying 1000-1200$ UMPCs are “waaay to pricey!”, who were buying all these devices? 1500$ Tablets, 1000$ high-end PDA-phones? And even 600$ graphic cards, 1000$ CPUs? Yes, most of us are bending to the 300$ graphic cards, 250$ CPUs and maybe 500$ PDA-phones, but don’t think that all these high-level products are selling only ten units. They are selling thousands and thousands. And we are buying them, not UMPC ignorants.

Rob Bushway from Gottabemobile.com revealed his (and his lovely kids’) video review of Tabletkiosk eo. Don’t miss it! I’m watching for the second time.

I an watching video reviews and it rings some bells for me. Indeed the comments below is not only valid for video reviews, but also for some articles floating on the net.

The video reviews are good for seeing the unit, comparing to other devices and understanding the size and the feel in the hands, but that’s all. I didn’t see real stuff in these reviews. I’m a hardware enthusiast and have read thousands of reviews. The reviews like “The units are not too heavy, you can put it in a bag, it gets hot, there is a button here, there is a button there and there and there, nice product” sucks! We need real material like “It gets 150 Fahreneit degrees after 30 minutes of heavy use that you can’t even hold it comfortably, battery life in Winstone in battery mode is this, in SYSmark is that, Quake3 and World of Warcraft benchmarks in different resolutions are these that show you can/can not play these games, …” Yes, UMPC is a new product and most people don’t even know about it, but most people interested in UMPCs are people like me and are curious about things like that.
Yes, this is why i’m here. To give you informations like these but Tabletkiosk hasn’t supplied us a unit.(and even if they do, Chris will review it (i’m abroad and they don’t let) and i’m not sure if he will review as i think) And Samsung Q1 should have had some previews until now, release date is May 1!

After Rob Bushway’s synopsis about Tabletkiosk eo, Martin J. Smekal commented Gottabemobile.com that they decided using 120 gram digitizer instead of 80 gram digitizer considering the editors’ thoughts on the beta unit. (with 80 gram one you can control UMPC with your fingers instead of a finger nail or stylus, in 120 gram one your hands interferes your writing less) So i made a comment there and let me say it here again.

It is nice to consider the editors’ thoughts but i believe UMPC lives for touching with fingers now. Inking is a good thing and i love it, but taking long notes is not UMPC’s duty, it is Tablet PC’s duty. Whether 80 gram or 120 gram touch digitizer, UMPC can not be the way to take long notes like Tablet. UMPC is mostly for entertainment like watching videos (of course not for watching a whole 3 hour-DVD ) , listening music and getting information on the go by browsing Internet from Starbucks etc.

And it is a new computing experience by touching what you want. If you remove the touching part, you can easily remove the Touch Pack as well.

And they are thinking of offering units with both 80 gram and 120 gram digitizers. It would be funny to experience the question when buying one : “Would you want to touch or write on the screen,sir?”

Rob Bushway made a good preview about Tabletkiosk eo and inking experience. I liked this preview a lot and i believe this must be the way to review the units. The thoughts are clear and obvious.

The alternates / correction part of the TIP does not work well at all with the touch digitizer. It relys heavily on the hover capability to show the dropdown for different letter choices. That drop down does not show up when using the stylus or mouse, and 99% of the time I can’t get alternate letters to appear. I’ll demo that as well.

In press conference at Seoul’s Grand InterContinental hotel held earlier this week, three software and hardware executives from Samsung, Microsoft and Intel had difficulties running Samsung Q1. Battery went dead after a few minutes, they failed to open OSK and a presentation went into rapid slide-show on its own.

And Engadget , Technudge , GigaOM and The Korea Times (and us) didn’t miss the opportunity to spread this funny event.

Probably it is not even their fault, they were just working about their presentations and speeches (and clothing) before the event. It is the staff responsible for the unit we should be making fun of, especially for the battery, they shouldn’t have been playing solitare before the event.

Is it really a UMPC? That really doesn’t matter to me since it looks like one, has the same specs as one, smells like one, it must be a UMPC. But, this thing has a keyboard!

Judging by the specs and form factor, sight unseen the Averatec AHI looks like a winner, put me down for one. Just bill me when it ships!  Just tell me when and where to get it!

This handheld Windows XP Home Edition-based machine, known as the AHI, has a keyboard that sits underneath a slide-out 5 inch, 1,280 x 1,204 touch-sensitive screen. It’s based on an Intel Celeron M ultra-low voltage processor with at least 512MB of memory.

Source : Tech Digest

Samsung Q1 is entering the market next month in Korea (of course South Korea) with about 1,199,000 Won - 1250$ (2 Million Won - 2000$ according to Engadget and origamiportal) price tag and expectation of selling 100.000 units locally and 300.000 units internationally in the next 12 months. Korean version of Q1 will come with DMB TV receiver, USB keyboard, auto adapter and other accessories.

And there are news coming about a possible future Samsung UMPC model with VIA chips with 700$ price tag.

And comments on these from your beloved writer :I see editors mentioning that price level is too high - especially 2000$ but Samsung explained that these are small,special computers and high prices is normal - just like my comments earlier. Indeed i believe everyone’s expectation of 500$ price level is coming from misunderstanding of Bill Gates’ speeches. He told price levels will be at that level but he also showed a completely different prototype. (wood mock-up) He told his expectations and vision about UMPCs - not his near future realistic plans. The components’ prices and other expenses can’t give us those prices - at least not now. I don’t believe UMPC will be a toy that everyone can buy one every six months like mobile phones. Maybe 5-6 years later.

Of course this future VIA-based UMPC from Samsung can be good, but i don’t think it will happen in near future. And although there are comparisions showing VIA C7-m processors can be better for more battery life, (don’t forget they are from VIA Arena) the difference is not that much considerable (especially to Pentium M) and VIA processors and chipsets are not fast) and desirable to ordinary consumers. (i had three problems couldn’t be solved with VIA)

And last one about 100.000 local and 300.000 international sales expectation. Indeed i believe it is achievable. But not now. Consider that as their hope and advertising tactic.
And it is interesting to see two Korea market equals to the rest of the world.
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After pushing Toshiba, Uber Tablet now talks about Fujitsu and UMPC.

So what do I conclude? All this told me one very vital thing: Fujitsu will get it right before shipping with devices that potentially get it wrong. So what about UMPC, is it in their 5, 10, 20 or 100-year plan? I don’t know. What I do know is that when Fujitsu enters the Ultra Mobile PC market place it will be with confidence, and product that works…stay tuned.

Fujitsu doesn’t need to make a UMPC, they have a UMPC. Lifebook P1510D. It is Tabletpc2.com’s editor’s choice.

I said about Dell’s not entering the market, and let me say it again : Yes, more companies will look into the UMPC market, but it is very blurry now. I think even Asus and Samsung may postpone their plans to watch what will happen. But if and when they are succeed, others can jump.