New SAMSUNG Micro Computer

[Jerry Jones]

New Samsung micro computer:

http://tinyurl.com/pz3k8

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[VJ]

Reviews don't appear too positive though...

http://handhelds.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=45152

FWIW, I have a Fujitsu Siemens P1510 TabletPC, and some applications don't scale well to its resolution of 1024x600 (8.9"). I can imagine things are even worse on the UMPC.


Jörg

[Jerry Jones]

It's too exensive, in my view.

If a person were to plug-in a USB microphone, this little computer might serve as a decent field audio recorder.

But there are cheaper alternatives:

http://www.minidisco.com

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Brian Ellis]

Not only too expensive at $1,100 but useless for in-the-field video work.

[VJ]

Not only too expensive at $1,100 but useless for in-the-field video work.

Useless for many other in-the-field work as well..

Microsoft had a couple of clips on how the UMPC would change your life. The movies are gone now, but here is what they basically were:
- woman shopping, taking a picture of something and mailing it to a friend
- man on a plane, first working (powerpoint/word), then playing a game

These are two things that can be accomplished with any laptop (it is not that the UMPC is that much more portable, and a laptop has a proper keyboard), or even with any modern PDA (which is more portable). At present, people that need this functionality already have it (laptop or pda); people that don't need it won't like something of this size (and price).

I think the UMPC is too late (surpassed for many things by PDAs) and too expensive. In my opinion, there is a market for both PDAs (with or without GSM built in) that run true windows versions (OQO , Dualcor) - if for no other reason than being able to view any file you can view on a regular PC - and laptops (even in relatively small form factors, downto 8.9" display - smallest size in which a keyboard is still workable), but I doubt there is a market for things inbetween.

(The dualcor is interesting: it runs both Windows Mobile and XP, which shared resources (outlook), depending on what you need, you run the windows you want)

Jörg

[Jerry Jones]

Yet... in spite of all of the negatives... virtually ALL companies are pushing the concept of MOBILITY.

Ulead, for example, is touting MPEG-4, 3GPP/3GPP2 software functionality and products that work with the APPLE iPod.

So MOBILITY is the BIG FOCUS these days in the marketing of both hardware and software.

That's why we're seeing products like this.

And we will continue to see more products like this such as the new Asus R2H:

http://tinyurl.com/g4hur

They're interesting to read about, but I'm not ready to buy.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[VJ]

Well, mobility is interesting. Being able to read/send emails from anywhere is nice, but it doesn't need such clumsy devices: a normal smartphone suffices. When I need to be truly mobile, I just use my smartphone (have full gprs access, so mail/web is not a problem). For anything more, I bring a (ultra portable) laptop. And for anything more, I sit at home.

It does bother my that the companies are trying everything to get us to spend more money; now they want us to watch low quality videos on tiny devices. But if you just want normal internet access, it takes the forever for them to arrange it (with my provider took 3 weeks to finally get this service). Are people really waiting to watch streaming TV on their mobile?


Jorg