PC World is quoting the president of Acer that UMPCs are not technologically feasible at this time. "The technology available today is still not in our opinion what the customer needs," says Gianfranco Lanci. He thinks that it might take two years for technology to be ready for UMPCs, because it is lacking in these areas:
1. Battery life of a couple hours needs to be 12 hours.
2. Wireless 3G service charges are too expensive.
3. Graphics need to be as good as on notebook computers.
Microsoft and Intel may think that "ultra mobile personal computers" are keen, but the hardware vendors who signed up to make the dream, aren't. Neither are customers: less than 100,000 sold last year.
Local electronics stores are carrying Sony's UMPC for CDN$2,825 (incl. tax). At that price, I can get a tiny Panasonic notebook computer that gives me a real keyboard and all other benefits that REAL computers have.
The UMPC is too big to be pocket-portable (like a Palm) and too small to be human-useful (like a notebook). Throw in the too-high price, and you've got a really category killer -- in the negative sense.
The UMPC reminds me of the AT&T EO.
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