Pinoy Tech Guy

To complete the question, why do UMPCs sell when full fledge laptops have better specs at roughly the same, if not lower prices? The answer isn’t as simple as you think.

UMPCs or Ultra Mobile Personal Computers, which is starting to be referred to by several manufacturers like Intel, Asus, Dell, etc as Netbooks, started off the market as just another vanity product, the Asus EEE. But the small form factor, the affordable price (the EEE was slated for a $199 price tag but.. we know better) seems to have jumpstart a market that was earlier, solely meant for geeks and enthusiasts. The UMPC market was born soon after.

But what is a UMPC or netbook anyway and how does it differ from the conventional laptop? Why is it better to buy a UMPC rather than spend the same money for something more powerful? Sounds illogical? Not really… but I’ll go on that in a bit.

What is a UMPC?

First off, let’s define a UMPC (I’ll stick to that term rather than the netbook for concurrency issues). A UMPC is defined as downsized notebook PC that has the bare essentials (but usually there’s more) to do most of what you want. Sounds like a regular notebook right? The main selling point of UMPCs are their lightweight bodies (usually less than 2 kg, the EEE sports 0.9 kg) and their long battery life (the MSI Wind is clocked at 5-6 hours on it’s 6 cell battery). At usually 2-3 kgs, regular notebooks are a pain to bring to work everyday, even if you have a vehicle with you.

So what can I do with it?

90% of the time, we use our computers to go to the internet for email and chat, searching and surfing, writing documents, playing music or downloaded videos, even just touching up your digital photos. File sharing over wifi and playing network games are pretty much the most resource intensive things than the average computer user does.

While full-fledged laptops have the processing power to do ALL these tasks, 90% of the time, you don’t need that much power. The UMPC’s low voltage processors are usually more than enough to do the mundane stuff without sacrifice the amount of time your computer stays on. Pretty handy when you’re doing a last minute review on a 4 hour long trip.

My conventional laptop name here>can do that andmore!

Yes and even your desktop can do most of the things the UMPC can do and probably more but will you carry them around if you need to say.. do a presentation? Highly unlikely right? The point of UMPCs is computing on the go and with most uniques weighing in at less than 1.5 kilos, they’re more than suited to the task.

If it’s not a conventional laptop, what’s it for then?

UMPCs are obviously not as powerful as any conventional laptop you pit against it nor do they have (usually, the MSI Wind with a 320GB hard drive an exception) spacious storage, they have smaller screesn and the keyboard takes some getting used to but what they have in processing speed and storage space is ample for casual day-to-day use. It’s quite suited popular online applications that are alternatives to desktop based programs like Google Docs and Microsoft Office.

These very compromises are what gives UMPCs their competitive prices. In turn it makes them very irresistible in terms of pricing as a second or even tertiary computer. In exchange to the toned tone specs, you get a longer battery life for the same battery unit on a conventional laptop.

Keep in mind that UMPCs aren’t meant to replace your powerhouse desktops/notebooks but rather compliment them as a mobile and toned down version. AS an interesting note, we owe the extension of Windows XP’s lifespan to the UMPC line simply because they can’t handle it’s current flagship product, Vista.

So… is it selling?

Quoting a sales rep from Asus Australia.

“We didn’t think the Eee PC would be suitable for the average user but we were happy to have been wrong. The first day they went on sale in the Myer store we sold out our entire stock of 130 in the first 30 minutes. The next day we had 700 across all the other Myer stores and that was another sell-out.” In the first month, Asus was selling about 1000 a week.

And Asus chief executive Jerry Shen

It definitely exceeded our expectations,” says Asus chief executive Jerry Shen. “Originally I hoped it would be around 200,000, so we definitely went above that.

The UMPC trend repeated worldwide, with Asus selling more than 350,000 Eee PCs in the first three months on the market.

So what’s next?

With the boom in the UMPC market, other PC manufacturers are lining up for a piece of the action. “HP, Dell and these other PC makers have learned that if there’s consumer interest, you can’t just sit back and let someone else steal all the thunder,” says Tim Bajarin, a long-time notebook watcher at industry analyst Creative Strategies.

HP and Acer have released their respective netbooks and Dell is expected to unveil its Inspiron Mini (left) next month.

What’s that again?

Here’s some pointers to get yourself knowledgable in the UMPC jargon.

UMPC - Ultra Mobile Personal Computers, as explained above
Netbooks - Also means UMPC, basically means internet notebook
MID - Mobile Internet Device, Intel’s current UMPC initiative or simply how the refer to the genre
Celeron M - The first processor of Asus’ EEE line. Subsequently replaced by the Atom
Intel Atom - Referred to as Stealey, Silverthorne or Lincroft (product line definition), the Atom is Intel’s flagship product for Ultra Low voltage processors.
Via Nano - Referred to as the Isaiah, the Nano is VIA’s flagship product for Ultra Low voltage processors.

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