What happened to the Samsung MID?
Part of the reason we tend to forgive companies for missing release dates is that it’s easy to forget about promised devices when the follow-through takes more than a few weeks. Things move so quickly in technology that before we can even remember to remind ourselves to check on the whereabouts of a particular device, we’re already hot on the trail of an even newer piece of gear with an even more uncertain release date.
Case in point: the Snapdragon-based Samsung MID that a Qualcomm representative said was "expected to hit retail stores" by the end of June. Most sites reported the news when it broke in mid-June and seemed impressed with the claimed specs, which included HSDPA, GPS, HD video playback capabilities, and support for a 12-megapixel camera. I skipped covering it here because it seemed a bit suspect, but there was some talk about in the forum. I figured I would wait for the official overseas announcement (Qualcomm’s US legal issues still haven’t been resolved, right?) or at least a blurry leaked image before writing it up. But neither came.
Worse yet, no one cared. It’s now been five weeks since the end of June, and the absence of the Samsung MID has gone unnoticed. It’s true that Samsung themselves have only gone on record (via UMPCPortal) as saying that a MID would come eventually, but that Qualcomm rep obviously knew something. Man, how good is Qualcomm’s benefits package that an employee still hasn’t slipped something through to Engadget? I mean, seriously. Where is it?
