Are UMPCs Finally Coming of Age?

Price drops and faster mobile broadband help, but the jury is still out on whether these devices are more practical than a notebook or smart phone.

by Eric M. Zeman on March 4, 2008

There's no question that access to back-office information is a critical component of productivity for the mobile professional. The right piece of equipment for achieving that access has typically been the laptop computer paired with a broadband connection. But for professionals who are on their feet all day, or who dash through airports every week, lugging around a five-pound device can be taxing and often impractical.

For a while, the PDA struggled to provide that access in a much smaller and easier-to-carry form factor. Even as the PDA evolved into the smart phone, its limitations prevented it from enabling full productivity. Enter the Ultra-Mobile personal computer (UMPC).

When the UMPC was formally announced in March of 2006 as the Origami Experience, it was a diamond in the rough. The small size, combined with a full Microsoft Windows operating system, was instantly appealing to frontline workers, but the first devices lacked keyboards, had abysmal battery life, and cost as much as full-fledged laptops. All that's changing, though, and the UMPC is becoming an alluring option for the business user.

"A lot of mobile professionals are seeing the value of the UMPC as a category," said Bob Rosin, OQO's senior vice president of marketing and alliances. "It is very much about the field worker, mobile professional, and sales manager who need full Windows capability, access to full business applications and the full Internet." It's the mobilization of these elements that supposedly makes UMPCs attractive, with most of today's designs weighing less than two pounds.