Ultra Mobile PC's and Ultra Mobile Devices at CES

I've finally gotten around to writing about an area which I'm working working on, developing ultra mobile products. These are small portable devices which add ubiquitious Internet access and other functionality to consumer electronics products.

Here are some links to coverage of Ultra Mobile devices from CES:

Engadget has a good summary of Ultra Mobile PC's at CES.

Here are three ultra mobile devices which I am currently leading development teams for:

This device is a next generation Ultra Mobile PC which was first unveiled in Intel CEO Paul Otellini's keynote speech at the Fall Intel Developer Forum, San Francisco during September 2006. This design incorporates a swiveling display to reveal a thumb keyboard below it. It is designed to provide consumers a portable way to take the Internet along with them wherever they may go.

A second design is designed to be used by middle school students ages 11-14 as lightweight, rugged portable learning PC to be used in the classroom, home and in-between. It incorpates a number of features to improve the surviability of the device while being carried around. One design innovation is the padded fabric cover which serves as a protective cover, a hinge for the display and keyboard pieces and a stand. This device should not to be confused with Intel's Classmate PC project which is meant for developing markets.

This third design is a concept of an ultra mobile device designed for car navigation and entertainment but which can be removed from its car dock and used a portable Internet terminal.

I'll continue to add more comments about these and other devices as they get closer to introduction.

2007 - The Year of Navigation

More extended commentary from CES. 2007 will be the year of navigation. This was clear from the plethora of navigation devices at CES from a variety of new entrants. The cost of GPS receivers modules has enabled much lower cost GPS receivers.

Entry level GPS receivers will be available for under $300 in retail.

Uniden, mostly known for cordless phones, announced three new personal navigation devices including the Maptrax 402 and 352.

Sony showed a geo tagger (GPS-CS1) which logs geographic position for 190 hours and then adds geographic coordinates to your photos. It matches the time codes from the photos to the logged position (sampled very 10 seconds) and works with most cameras (MSRP: about $150).

LG showed a device for the Korean market which combines a GPS receiver with a T-DMB digital TV receiver for those who get lost easily and need entertainment while locating their destination.

Kenwood showed an in-dash mounted double DIN navigation unit with a 6.95" display, TMC traffic data from XM or Clearchannel, Garmin navigation hardware, and DVD playback.

Blaupunkt and Kenwood announced a joint venture to develop PND's.

Korean company iRiver announced a WiFi enabled GPS receiver.

Navigon announced that it will offer free real-time traffic data using Clearchannel's real-time traffic service.

TeleNav announced a cellphone based navigation service.
Various Asian manufacturers including Aigo, Malata, and MSI showed low cost systems.

Web Coverage of CES

News:
This Week in Consumer Electronics (TWICE) - http://www.twice.com/
CNet - www.cnet.com
EE Times - www.eetimes.com/conf/ces
EE Times (video reports from CES) - http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ZHZIJAKDCP2REQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=196801939
Macworld Magazine (yes, they covered CES) - www.macworld.com
Newsweek - http://mytech.talk.newsweek.com/
San Jose Mercury News - http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/special_packages/ces/
The Register (CES in 5 minutes) - http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/12/ces_in_five_mins/
The Register Hardware - http://www.reghardware.co.uk/
Wired - http://www.wired.com/
PC Magazine - http://www.pcmag.com/prestitial/0,,,00.asp?success_page=%2Fcategory2%2F0%2C1874%2C2034652%2C00.asp
Infoweek - http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=s&V=84945


Blogs:
10 Apples Blog - http://10apples.com/wp/2007/01/11/ponderings-on-ces/
Engadget - www.engadget.com
What is New (UMPC focused) - http://www.whatisnew.com/default.aspx
ValleyWag - http://www.valleywag.com/
San Jose Mercury News - http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/ces/
San Jose Mercury News (Dean Takahashi) - http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/takahashi/
New York Times Blogs - http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/
EE Times Consumer Blog - http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/consumer/index.html?loc=consumer
Wired Blog (Ugly gadgets of CES) - http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos15/
Anandtech - http://www.anandtech.com/
ExtremeTech - http://www.extremetech.com/
I'll be adding new sources to this list as I uncover them.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - CES and Disruptive Innovation

From Las Vegas, NV - Everyone who's been to CES (Consumer Electronics Show, www.cesweb.org) after Comdex collapsed will agree that it is a zoo. 140,000 people makes for huge lines for everything. Yesterday, while taking a cab from the Venetian hotel to the Las Vegas convention center (about 2 miles - it took 20 minutes in traffic), I started to talking with the cab driver. Ahmed said that he was originally from Iran and immigrated to the U.S. in 1972, "when everything was better" (now he said, "everything is bad") and went to college in Kentucky. Later, the owned four video rental stores in the Salinas, California area. He closed up his stores five years ago after Blockbuster stores started opening up in the area and moved to Las Vegas. Now, he drives a cab two days a week and travels. He mentioned that two of the Blockbuster stores near him have closed recently , no doubt due to the popularity of purchasing DVD's from big box retailers, renting from NetFlix and now downloading movies through services such as iTunes.

Existing technologies such as two-way digital cable (pay-per-view) and new technologies such as IPTV (ie, AT&T's U-Verse service), Microsoft Windows Media Center, Microsoft's XBox 360, MovieBeam, as well as download services like iTunes, CinemaNow and MovieLink are all vying to replace Blockbuster and they are already having an affect. Every time, a new technology replaces the old regime, someone is affected whether it is owners of small video rental stores or the guys who work in the Blockbuster stores. Of course, new technologies also provide new opportunities to those precient or fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time. But, let's not overlook the impact on those who are on the wrong side of technology.

I'll be posting my observations from CES in the next weeks.