With Lenovo's new Menlow, Aigo's Menlow, Gigabyte's M700 and Digifriend's WiBro, it seems everyone is getting into the MID (Moorestown-based devices) game this year. Not wanting to be left out of all the fund, HTC has just announced that they are planning on releasing an Intel-powered MID before the end of 2008. This HTC's extensive experience with pocket pc handsets and their new HTC Shift crossover device which runs on WM6 and Windows Vista, we should see some interesting MID devices from them.
The MID platform was announced late in 2007 by Intel, but first adopters have been able to get their hands on limited models already this year. Intel is expecting the MID market to skyrocket in 2009 as mode manufacturers start pumping the out and also because the price point will be lower than current UMPC's. Intel has been clear that there is a big difference between a MID and a UMPC. Listed below are a few of the main distinctions between the devices.
UMPC
- Business-class or media device for enterprise or entertainment users
- Runs a full OS like Vista or Windows XP
- Optimized for office-use applications like Excel, Word, etc.
MID
- Consumer-class media and lifestyle device
- Runs a lightweight OS with quick startup like Linux
- Optimized for media playback and web surfing and RSS
