Microsoft Prepping For UMPC Second Chance

 

Interesting artcile in eWeek’s Channel Insider talking about the future of the Ultra-Mobile PC/Origami market and planning for a “second chance.”

‘ “You’ll see an additional wave of UMPCs available in the holiday timeframe,” said Mika Kramer, head of Microsoft’s new Windows Client Mobility Marketing Team, a group within its Windows Client Product Marketing Group in Redmond, Wash. “We are seeing a lot more Tier 1 players get a lot more interested in releasing the UMPC.”

“You’ll definitely see form factors change in the Q4 [2006], Q1 [2007] timeframe. You’re going to see integration of different IDs [industrial designs]…and incorporation of keyboards in some machines,” Kramer said.’

The article also addresses the issues of a price point higher than Microsoft desires, competition from other manufacturers entering the space and new chip solutions form Intel and VIA technologies, as well as how different UMPC models will be targeted at different segments of the market.

Interesting observation. If Vista isn’t rolling out on a consumer front until after the first of the year, I’m not sure we’ll see many of these “second chance” UMPCs until after or when that occurs. Check out the full article here.