Ultraportables Previewed

A new class of lightweight Tablet PCs for consumers will feature seven-inch touch-sensitive screens and some new user interface features. Formally unveiled at the Mar. 2006 CeBIT conference after several weeks of hints and rumors, Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs) will occupy an unproven niche between handheld devices (such as personal digital assistants [PDAs], smart phones, and portable music players) and laptop computers, and therefore may have a hard time finding a market in their first iteration.

Characteristics

First demonstrated as a mockup by Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in May 2005, UMPCs are small battery-powered PCs based on a Microsoft hardware reference design and running Windows XP Tablet Edition. Unlike regular Tablet PCs, which are geared toward mobile workers, UMPCs are designed for consumers, who could use them to send and receive e-mail, surf the Web, access digital media (such as music and pictures), and play PC games.