Of late, Intel’s Atom processor has been making a lot of news. Atom is Intel’s latest processor offering designed specifically for devices aimed at mobile computing - MIDs, UMPCs, Netbooks (and now Nettops), etc. The Silverthorn-based Atoms are targeted at MIDs/UMPCs while the Diamondville class Atoms will be powering the Netbooks/Nettops. But hey, all that is geeky stuff. At a consumer level, you are more likely to have heard about the Asus Eee PC, Acer Aspire One and HP’s own Mini-Note and Mini 110. Then there are also truely mobile computing smartphones such as the HTC TyTn II and the iPhone. The market does offer a wide variety of choices for computing on-the-go. But not all of these cater to a wide variety of needs. Each solution aims to cater at a niche segment - mobility, media, entertainment, powerful processing, etc. So what does this mean to us as consumers? Can we really cut through the fog and determine what’s the best solution for us? In this article, we take a brief look at the various mobile computing solutions on offer in the market and the needs they serve.
It all started with the MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices):
In essence - aimed squarely to enable you to surf the web on-the-go. MIDs are basically a consumer offering since they usually provide a host of connectivity options (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, etc.). However, a typical MID will have a stripped-down version of an OS (Linux, etc.) that does not offer any other processing solutions such as word processing, spreadsheets, etc. (as I said, its a consumerish thing…). All along, the idea is to keep things light and fast. Most MIDs also double as media devices these days, so they feature bigger screens upward of 4″.
In essence - aimed squarely to enable you to surf the web on-the-go. MIDs are basically a consumer offering since they usually provide a host of connectivity options (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, etc.). However, a typical MID will have a stripped-down version of an OS (Linux, etc.) that does not offer any other processing solutions such as word processing, spreadsheets, etc. (as I said, its a consumerish thing…). All along, the idea is to keep things light and fast. Most MIDs also double as media devices these days, so they feature bigger screens upward of 4″.
Sony’s Mylo, Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet are some notable examples of MIDs.
What about the enterprises - enter the UMPCs
Ultra Mobile PC concept was developed by Intel, Microsoft and Samsung (Project Origami) to be a variation of the MIDs, but with more processing power. The idea was cater to enterprise mobile users who are constantly moving around. Carrying around a 3kg laptop is not an ideal proposition in such situations. The form-factor is pretty similar to that of an MID. Ideally, a UMPC features a full-blown OS such as Windows XP or Vista or even Ubuntu. This enables business users to access their important documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, .pdf, etc.) through it. The UMPCs have been traditionally marred with weak battery issues, but the scene looks promising with Intel’s Atom processor which has a much lower thermal envelope and hence drawing out less resources from the battery.
Ultra Mobile PC concept was developed by Intel, Microsoft and Samsung (Project Origami) to be a variation of the MIDs, but with more processing power. The idea was cater to enterprise mobile users who are constantly moving around. Carrying around a 3kg laptop is not an ideal proposition in such situations. The form-factor is pretty similar to that of an MID. Ideally, a UMPC features a full-blown OS such as Windows XP or Vista or even Ubuntu. This enables business users to access their important documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, .pdf, etc.) through it. The UMPCs have been traditionally marred with weak battery issues, but the scene looks promising with Intel’s Atom processor which has a much lower thermal envelope and hence drawing out less resources from the battery.
Samsung’s Q1 was one of the first UMPCs to hit commercial production. There’s also OQO’s e2, Wibrain’s B1L, Sony’s VGN-UX50, etc.
Netbooks, the current ‘in thing’
There’s isn’t much debate around the world that this form-factor has been hugely popularized by Asus’ Eee PC. Sub-notebooks, or Netbooks (Intel coined this word in March 2008) present an odd proposition. While in a way they are not that dissimilar from your regular laptop, their size takes them closer to the UMPCs I mentioned a while ago. Netbooks usually feature a screen-size varying from 7″-10″ while offering almost a full-size keyboard and a host of other connectivity options. Notable difference comes from the fact that unlike your laptop, the netbooks feature either a SSD (Solid State Drive) or a Flash-based hard drive since they occupy lesser space. OS can be a full function Vista or XP, but in most cases its Linux. They do not come with a wide variety of software applications loaded on-board, and this is where cloud computing takes over. Nicholas Negroponte, the guy behind the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project, is actively promoting the sub-notebook category for the Third World education system.
Image courtesy: http://www.navigadget.com/wp-content/postimages/2007/06/umpc-gps-eb-01.jpg
There’s isn’t much debate around the world that this form-factor has been hugely popularized by Asus’ Eee PC. Sub-notebooks, or Netbooks (Intel coined this word in March 2008) present an odd proposition. While in a way they are not that dissimilar from your regular laptop, their size takes them closer to the UMPCs I mentioned a while ago. Netbooks usually feature a screen-size varying from 7″-10″ while offering almost a full-size keyboard and a host of other connectivity options. Notable difference comes from the fact that unlike your laptop, the netbooks feature either a SSD (Solid State Drive) or a Flash-based hard drive since they occupy lesser space. OS can be a full function Vista or XP, but in most cases its Linux. They do not come with a wide variety of software applications loaded on-board, and this is where cloud computing takes over. Nicholas Negroponte, the guy behind the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project, is actively promoting the sub-notebook category for the Third World education system.
Image courtesy: http://www.navigadget.com/wp-content/postimages/2007/06/umpc-gps-eb-01.jpg
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