Ultra Mobile PCs: Do you want to mini-size that?

This week's highlighted research:



In-Stat. "In-Stant analysis: The ultra mobile PC - hip or hype?"



Gartner. "UMPC has promise but is far from mature."



IDC. "Worldwide handheld Qview."



I worked in an office once where I was given a "luggable," a type of early pre-laptop that was meant to be carried around from place to place. Because it was bulky and heavy, you didn't so much carry it as you did lug it around, thus the nickname. Today's notebooks are conveniently small and lightweight, and getting more lightweight every year. And the quest for portability has given rise to entirely new categories of computing devices, which can be put into a jacket pocket or purse.



The idea of a PDA is cool indeed. It allows you to carry around a small subset of what you can do on a regular laptop, and some even have a keyboard of sorts. Of course, typing on that keyboard is difficult, so using a PDA, no matter how powerful, as a regular laptop is not possible. We as consumers are a curious bunch. When we go to a fast food restaurant, we're asked if we want our drink "super-sized." But as our food orders (and as a consequence, ourselves) get larger, we want our technology to be as small as possible. But is there a point after which it gets too small? There are those who purchased Palm Pilots, thinking they would be on the cutting edge of technology, and then wound up using them as nothing more than address books. Now I don't know about you, but for me, if all I need is an address book, I would rather go for the $1.99 paper variety from the drugstore, with the companion 19 cent Bic data entry device.



According to IDC's report, the first quarter of 2006 marked the ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline in handheld shipments. The industry continues to add new features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and expandable memory, yet the handheld market continues to shrink.

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