CutMeLoose.com

Interesting news from TG Daily, especially coming on the heels of Microsoft’s Lifestyle Computing “ideal” specs released last week. I'm not sure of the validity of the report, but certainly worth following up on:

Intel is gearing up for the release of its handtop computer platform later in this quarter: The first "Ultra Mobile PCs" (UMPCs) will arrive with a standby time of a week and include WWAN and GPS capability. A second batch of UMPCs will follow in the second half of this year and come with Windows Vista preinstalled, TG Daily has learned.

There is so much buzz around Intel's recently launched Core Duo processor and Viiv entertainment platform, one could easily oversee the firm's next major product launch. And no, we do not talk about Intel's next-generation microarchitecture due in September of this year; we are talking about the UMPC.

Sources now indicate that Intel is on track to take the wraps off the platform sometime this quarter: Samsung, Asus and Founder will the first companies to launch UMPCs.

The company previously stated that the first run of UMPCs will not be commercially available before the second half of this year. If the three vendors are able to ship the UMPCs then this is a clear indication that Intel is well ahead of schedule and is pushing the platform for an accelerated market adoption. The "breakthrough" of the UMPS so far has been targeted for the 2007 and 2008 timeframe.

For the second half of 2006, Intel expects a second wave of UMPCs that will include devices from LGE, Acer and Averatec and run Windows Vista.

# posted by Rob Bushway @ 11:46 PM