Ultra Mobile PCs - The Future of UMPC
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I only mentioned a few different devices here, but there are many more different models and designs. How successful will these devices be? ASUS sold over 300,000 of them last year, and seeing that this is still an emerging technology, I think these will outsell traditional laptops in a few years.
This isn't a fad or vaporware. The UMPC is real and it's coming because the hardware is catching up. HP would agree with me on this issue. They are working on an UMPC now, and are rumored to have put an order in for two million units. That is almost seven times as many units as ASUS sold last year of its EEE PC, so it appears they are banking on UMPCs to flourish. There are some rumors flourishing about Dell making a UMPC as well, but nothing concrete yet.
Are they ready to replace your desktop PC soon? I would say not yet. I think that it's a mental thing, first of all -- moving away from the comfort of the desktop and getting used to a handheld computer. The hardware of these devices will meet the requirements for a number of people already. For the people that run advanced applications or do a good amount of multitasking, the hardware isn't quite there yet. If the device is running XP or Vista, the software requirement is met, since you can run all the applications that you can run on a desktop.
Conclusion
Ultra Mobile PCs could turn out to be that all in one device I have been wanting for years. Until now, we were left with a bulky laptop computer or an under powered PDA. The UMPC is a hybrid of both of these existing technologies. The initial devices have been selling really well. The ASUS EEE PC sold over 300,000 units alone last year, and the market only seems to be getting bigger.
The handheld units look very interesting, and Intel's new Atom processors should provide the power needed to run Vista without any lag. The future is bright for these devices and HP is banking on them to be a noticeable segment of the PC market in the next year.
I believe that HP is barking up the right tree here. The UMPC is coming and it will change the way people do their computing. This isn't the last story you will hear about UMPC.
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