ABI Research Expects 385 Million Ultra Mobile Devices to Ship in 2014
October 26, 2009 4:26 PM | Interesting | Comments (0)
 “Consumers and business buyers are only recently accustomed to the netbook feature set,” says senior analyst Jeff Orr. “Regardless of vendor, the majority of today’s netbooks ship with Intel processors and Windows XP into developed markets.” As uptake continues, developing markets will become the larger opportunity leveraging both ARM-based processors and Linux operating systems. |
The premium netbook category will also be established, offering larger screens and greater choices in connectivity solutions. Given little distinction today in feature-set and a relatively small price band, brands are differentiating themselves on aesthetics and build quality.
Pocketable MIDs remain a far more interesting product segment to watch, says Orr, as the market is still emerging. While the most common product design remains the tablet form, competing form factors such as models with slider keyboards, clamshells and touch-screen-only interfaces are gaining in popularity. “However, there is a danger that the MID market will disappear before it gets the chance to mature, as smartphones increase in popularity and mimic most if not all tasks performed by MIDs.”
One can also expect the line distinguishing MIDs from smartphones to blur as MIDs add voice: Nokia has equipped its latest “Internet Tablet,” the model N900, with cellular voice capabilities, for example.
ABI Research’s “Mobile Internet Devices Product Database” tracks netbook, UMPC and MID announcements from all major vendors. The database includes information about these products' availability and feature sets. It also specifically tracks the air interface technologies these devices use to access the Internet.
It is a component of the Netbooks, MIDs and Mobile CE Research Service, which also includes Research Reports, Research Briefs, other Market Data products, ABI Insights, ABI Vendor Matrices, and analyst inquiry support.
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