Netbook ... notebook ... oh, let's call it a mobile PC

When it comes to naming categories of new mobile computing devices, even the experts can get confused.

There is the mobile Internet device, or MIDs, and there is the netbook, which some say is the latest name for the ultramobile PC (UMPC).

Both MIDs and netbooks are bigger than smart phones but smaller than laptops, which a lot of vendors insist on calling notebooks. They are all mobile computers, but they have significant differences. In the end, the category names might not be terribly useful.

"This is a very interesting area because there are no defined boundaries to these devices," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates in Northboro, Mass. "Everybody makes up their own names for a category. You change a name to make it sell."

Gold said Intel Corp.'s general description for an MID is a computer with a screen that measures 7 inches or smaller, while a netbook's screen runs from 7 inches to 10 inches.

Intel makes the Atom processor that's used in MIDs and netbooks, but Gold said he fully expects the Atom to be used in much bigger machines at some point. "These are all Intel definitions and not industry standards," Gold said.

Intel showed several Atom-based MIDs and netbooks at Mobile Internet World last week in Boston, and how they could be used with WiMax wireless networks. Some include embedded WiMax Link 5100 series modules from Intel, and others has WiMax USB dongles. (See video, below.)

At the Consumer Electronics Show last January, Intel showed the MID as an example of a device that would function well over mobile WiMax.

Despite the general screen size differences between MIDs and netbooks, Gold said screen size isn't the only distinction. The differences might depend on the device's operating system, its weight or functions.

It's a mini-PC; No, it's a net book
For example, Gold said the Eee PC from AsusTek Computer Inc. in Taiwan should really be called a mini-PC, because some models run Windows XP as the operating system. The new <">Eee PC S101, announced Oct. 21, runs XP and is 0.7 inches thick, weighs 2 pounds and will sell for $699 on Nov. 1, according to a company statement. It also has a 10.2-inch, laptop-sized screen.

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