UMPCs are just the beginning
Senior VP and general manager of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group Anand Chandrasekher expects the UMPC platform as we know it today to change dramatically (and possibly beyond recognition) in the next few years. Promising to reveal more specific details at April’s IDF, he alluded to "full Web access on pocket-sized devices within 18 months" via mobile WiMax, which is set to reach millions of U.S. residents through Sprint Nextel late this year. The long-range wireless broadband technology will also be available on Wi-Fi/WiMax combo cards in 2008.
UMPCs, he said, will eventually splinter into a range of ultra mobile, ultra tiny devices. By June of this year, these devices will be 75% smaller and 50% more power-efficient than what’s on the market today. Next year, the "platform will be one-seventh the size of current devices and use one-tenth the power." Exactly what kinds of "Ultra Mobile devices" (UMD? Does Sony know?) we can expect to see is unclear, but the Apple iPhone was cited as, at the least, a decent execution of Intel’s "mobile personal Internet" vision.
What about UMPCs and handtops? They already provide a very full, very rich online experience that I would call both mobile and personal. Wouldn’t you?
