Oct/Nov 2008

In case you hadn't noticed, mobile computer manufacturers are currently engaged in a major push to win market share for what are termed 'ultra-mobile devices', or UMDs. You might think of them as mini-laptops, or alternatively as very large PDAs. The idea is that they can combine some or all the functions of both types of device, saving cost.

The makers seem to be having some success. ABI Research says total income derived from sales of these units will be $3.5 billion this year, and will rise to nearly $27 billion in 2013.

At the heart of this surge is a recently-launched microprocessor from Intel – its Atom series, which maintains the company's Core instruction set (and hence runs standard Windows implementations), but is extremely small.

In fact Intel says the Atom is its smallest and lowest-power chip ever, requiring just 1 to 2.5 watts to run. To get technical, it is based on hafnium-infused 45nm high-k silicon technology.

 

But ABI is predicting that Intel will not altogether dominate this market. It reckons that although x86 processors will still hold more than half the market by 2013, a large proportion will be accounted for by ARM processors.

Potentially worrying for Microsoft, it also reckons that in 2013 twice as many UMDs will be running Linux as Windows: and this even though it admits that current laptops running Linux suffer a higher returns rate that those on Windows.

However, ABI admits that the term UMD tends to be used rather loosely, applying to anything from a fully-fledged mini-laptop to a large high-end mobile phone/PDA, which it calls a mobile Internet device, or MID. These could account for many of the Linux applications, and represent a market where Microsoft is still building up market share.

On the subject of MIDs, ABI says the price of many of these is still subsidised by the network providers, who are said to supply 30 per cent of all UMDs. But by 2013 ABI says that proportion will have fallen to 20 per cent.

So are UMDs good value, and could they suit your business? In many cases the answer must be yes, and m.logistics will be looking further at this subject over the coming year.