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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

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Things That I'm Excited About in The Mobile PC Space

- Rob Bushway The past few weeks have been the busiest ever for me. With trips to the Surface team, AMD, Dell, and Motion, my mind is crazy with everything that is going on.

Here is a quick run-down on the companies and technologies that I'm most excited about and why.

I'm excited about the iPhone 2.0 software due to Exchange and 3rd party application support. I'm not too crazy about iPhone 3G - kind of meh at this point.
Microsoft Surface is totally nuts. There is so much potential in that new paradigm of computing, I can totally understand the Surface team's struggles with focus and execution. They want to get it right and, so far, are doing a great job. They want Surface in the consumer space as quickly as everyone else, so stay tuned. It'll happen, we just need to be patient. Why do we talk about Surface so much on a mobile site? The technology they are working on will find its way to mobile computing and a new paradigm in computing will totally revolutionize the mobile space. That is why I'm working on Dell Latitude XT. Right now, it is the most future proof tablet pc on the market.
Dell is looking to be a trendsetter rather than a follower in the mobile space. I think they will do it.
Motion Computing is working on some awesome stuff and I'm very excited about them as a company. I am concerned, though, that they should shorten the time between products. They started off with a regular yearly product release cycle, but have been increasing the time between new products as each year passes, thus allowing other companies to encroach. In my opinion, the LS800 was the right product at the right time with the wrong pricing that also needed some engineering issues addressed. I'm not sure that we will ever see Motion release another form factor like that, but I would never bet against them, either. A reegineered LS800, if properly marketed and priced, could totally revolutionize Motion.
AMD's biggest move to the mobile space is happening right now with PUMA, their upcoming Hybrid CrossfireX technology (discrete and integrated graphics in the same box), and Shrike (GPU and CPU on the same piece of silicon) targeted to ultra-mobiles. AMD wants to be a major player in the ultra-mobile space, and I think they will succeed. I found AMD to be remarkably frank and honest about their past mistakes and learning from them. There is a lot of trust be earned right now, and AMD is in a position to earn it back or get laughed off the stage. I think they will earn the trust in a big way.
OQO has been releasing frequent updates to its Model 02 (CPU, SSD, etc), but it has been a year and a half since the Model 02 was announced. It's time for something new and innovative. I'm very excited to see what OQO has been working on the past year. OQO is the right player in the right space at the right time with the right product. Pricing structure changes will help elevate them to the next level.
Lenovo's rumored X200 Tablet PC has got a lot of people talking. If it is anything like the X300 ultra-portable, it should be an overwhelming success.
HP seems to be hitting some great strides with their TX Tablet PC series. The word I'm hearing is that it is selling like crazy. They hit the price point and addressed interaction issues. Let's hope they are listening with regards to the 2710p - folks love it, but there are definite issues to address with the next release.
Evernote has totally revolutionized my use of notetaking and access to those notes from whatever device I'm on.
Syncing is the buzz word of the moment, and in my opinion, the key to working successfully in the cloud. I've been taking great use of SugarSync. However, I'm very excited to see where Windows Live Mesh ends up. Seamless syncing between multiple platforms is hot stuff and is the future of the cloud.

Technorati Tags: amd, motion computing, oqo, hp, evernote, mobile, sugarsync, tablet pc, surface

7/1/2008 2:02 PM MST

Things That I'm Excited About in The Mobile PC Space Comments [10] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 2:23:12 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

You seem to have forgotten the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro Windows Mobile phones! ;) *grin*

GoodThings2Life

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 2:25:22 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

The mobile space is changing at breakneck speed. It's hard to cover all the changes, but as a consumer, it's definitely exciting times to be a tech geek! Keep up the good work, Rob.

tonka

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 2:51:10 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

At the moment, my mind is occupied by ritePen 3.0. I've already named it the killer app for Tablet PCs, and I'm about to go home and test it out in conjunction with another application to create what could be the killer tab app mash-up. I am practically giddy with anticipation over this.

Sumocat

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 3:27:18 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Sooooooooo Rob, what can you tell us about what Oqo's been working on, hmmmmmmmmmmm????

Ron

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 3:31:55 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

@Ron - :-) - absolutely nothing. I just know OQO and their ability to innovate and design, plus it is about time for them to be doing something.

Rob

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 4:08:23 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Given OQO can take 10 weeks to repair an 02 the idea there is somthing new in he works that soon I think is unrealistic

scoobie

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 5:50:27 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Soon relative to what? OQO's last update was in January and there's no reason to believe they work on only one project at a time.

What I find curious is that it may be hard to buy an OQO right now. (I don't know for sure because I haven't tried to buy one.) Both BuildYourUMPC and Dynamism look like they're low on OQOs. OQO's own web store lists 10-12 week availability.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 8:18:12 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

That 2500 series from HP is selling at breakneck pace. The Puma system on that benchmarked rediculously well for a budget tablet. That being said, I personally am reluctant to buy it for VT this fall because of the HP plasticy frame. Here's to hoping something like the M700 comes out with graphics to compare.

On a side note - does anyone know of either an online benchmark or a USB runnable benchmark? I want to do some quick tests at the VT vendor show but I doubt I can install anything there lol.

Tim

Wednesday, July 02, 2008 9:27:38 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

What?! No mention of Android... how dare you! LOL Really though I am kinda surprised. I am not a mobile uber geek (yet) but I do know that I would (at this time and place) take an Android phone over any iPhone product. I know OpenSource is the focus of this community, but the presence of an OpenSource phone OS is a great future to me. I am so tired of lock in from the mobile vendors, I just want a device that works, and that I can add/remove from all I want to make it exactly what I want in a mobile phone/device.

Uthacon

Wednesday, July 02, 2008 9:28:28 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Almost forgot to mention, I love the prospect of Surface in the everyday computing world... oh god how I can't wait for the SDK to go public.

Utahcon

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