In-stat research has released a report on the future of UMPCs and it looks really bright. They predict that 7.8 million UMPCs could ship in the next 5 years. Key factors driving the sales of UMPCs are their functionality bridging the gap between usage limitations of smart phones and PDAs and portability limitations of laptop computers.

The research also states quite an obvious - that there’s no size fits all solution. So even though the first generation UMPC devices will not have many unique features and will try to create a new usage model at a price points affordable for early adopters, we can expect a lot of experimentation and innovation later as processing, storage and power saving/storing technologies catch up. Continue Reading »
7.8 million UMPCs to ship in the next 5 years

Is Apple working on it’s own Origami UMPC device? Well, judging from patent applications filed by Apple in recent months, it seems so.

Does this picture look familiar:

It looks just like variation of Microsoft Touchpack software, except it is a single arc QWERTY keyboard, instead of two split panes in Touchpack. This drawing comes from the latest Apple patent application filed today describing “activation of virtual keys of a touch screen keyboard”. The form and shape of the keyboard doesn’t appear to give any benefits to larger tablet PC or laptop sized devices and seems best suited for a small portable computer just like UMPC. Continue Reading »
Apple Origami UMPC? Looks likely

Well, it’s official now. On May 01, Samsung is launching Q1 UMPC in it’s home market - Korea. Dubbed Samsung Sens Q1, it is the same UMPC as shown off at Cebit.

According to Samsungs representatives, the goal with Samsung Sens Q1 is to create a new market for the small portable device having all PC functions. To make it’s UMPC more attractive it has released a range of new accessories for it and encourages outside vendors to produce even more, with the hope of creating the ecosystem of products similar to Apple’s iPod. Continue Reading »
400K of Samsung Sens Q1 UMPCs to be sold this year

As you may remember in all the buzz leading to the launch of UMPC/Origami, Intel was one of the main promoters of the new PC form factor. It even announced the UMPC devices a day before the official Microsoft Origami launch. However it appears that in Intel’s view UMPC devices has one key difference from the Microsft design - keyboard.

Most of the Origami devices launched so far stress keyboardless touchscreen and Touchpack software as a user input interface. However if you look at the Intel’s concept design on they UMPC site, you can see that there is a keyboard present on it. During his presentation of UMPC during Intel Developer Forum, Sean Maloney, Intel’s Mobility VP also mentioned that in the next few years we will see different form factors of UMPC devices with “…keyboards that swivel out, keyboards that clamshell open…”, etc.

Continue Reading »
Intel wants to add keyboard to the UMPC

Detailed article of how to write applications for UMPC has been published on Microsoft MSDN Magazine.

Article by MSDN Magazine’s technical editor Stephen Taub uses Microsoft Touchpack’s Sudoku game to guide through the application development process. It is a very detailed 60 page article, covering all aspects of creating the software application for UMPC and Tablet PC platforms.

Additionally Microsoft has released complete source code and Sudoku application for the download.