Kev
12-08-2008, 09:57 PM
A few years ago the Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-Mobile_PC) came out, more commonly known as a UMPC. They became quite popular amongst geeky tech types and most major computing companies released one.
Although not the first one release, the samsung Q1 (see below) was used by microsoft to highlight what can be achieved by UMPC devices.
However, in the last year UMPC developed has slowly but surely decreased and in it's place it's successor, the netbook, has rose to the front. Netbooks were developed due to the growing popularity of UMPC devices. At the start of the year the Asus EEE and HP mini note were about the onle netbooks you could get but now every major company including sony, dell and acer have either released a netbook or are planning to do so within the next 6 months.
It's a shame that the umpc is not being developed any more though, at least not with the same energy that companies are putting into netbooks. Hopefully we will see some hybrid netbook/umpc's within the next year.
Although not the first one release, the samsung Q1 (see below) was used by microsoft to highlight what can be achieved by UMPC devices.
However, in the last year UMPC developed has slowly but surely decreased and in it's place it's successor, the netbook, has rose to the front. Netbooks were developed due to the growing popularity of UMPC devices. At the start of the year the Asus EEE and HP mini note were about the onle netbooks you could get but now every major company including sony, dell and acer have either released a netbook or are planning to do so within the next 6 months.
It's a shame that the umpc is not being developed any more though, at least not with the same energy that companies are putting into netbooks. Hopefully we will see some hybrid netbook/umpc's within the next year.