Topics: Wolfe's Den

Intel 'Atom' Mobile Internet Device Previewed

Posted by Alexander Wolfe, Apr 11, 2008 03:29 PM

I've changed my mind about Intel's new downsized Atom processor, which is being pitched by the semiconductor behemoth as a little chip with enough power to deliver a biiiiiig handheld Web-browsing experience. My initial thought was: Who needs a mobile Internet Device (MID), when you're already toting around a laptop, smartphone, iPod, Bluetooth earpiece, and who knows what else? Then I heard about Gigabyte's prototype MID.

The device is neat enough that I think it could function as an iPhone replacement. Of course, it doesn't have a phone in it, but that shouldn't be an impediment, because you can easily shoehorn a phone into the MID form-factor. That's what HTC did with its 'Shift,' which is an ultramobile PC plus a phone.

OK, now I'm bouncing all over the place, conflating phones with MIBs and ultramobiles. Unfortunately, this is precisely the problem I was wrestling with in March, when I wrote that Intel's Atom Processor Won't Solve UMPC Confusion."

My points then (and now) are:

Too many form-factors (and processors) are competing for a consumer who only needs one device -- a smartphone.

The term "MID," for Mobile Internet Device, is far and away the worst acronym I've ever heard for an electronic device. (There's also MIB, for Mobile Internet Browser; that's just as bad.) I can go into any store and ask for an iPhone, iPod, smartphone, ultramobile, even a UMPC. But am I gonna walk into the local cell phone mart and request a MID? No midding way!

The problem isn't with these devices, per se, as much as it is with the network, or the slowness of same. As in: iPhone connected to a Wi-Fi network, good; iPhone on EDGE, not so good.

Still and all, like I said at the outset, I'm rethinking my position. That's due mainly to two new pieces of information. First off, thanks to TG Daily, I have a better understanding of where Intel is coming from here. That would be, from a position of extreme profit. TG Daily reports that Intel is manufacturing the Atom for $8 a pop and selling it for up to $135 each. As they say in Silicon Valley, sweet.

What's interesting about this is that it turns Intel's traditional fabrication model on its ear. The chip giant has long made the most profit on its fanciest chips. That's one reason it constantly strives to crank out new, cutting-edge dual- and quad-core SKUs. Simpler stuff was cheaper on the food chain, cranked out at fabs which have long been amortized. These limper chips (no offense intended) were less expensive and contributed less profit, but it didn't matter because the cost of production was negligible, comparatively speaking.

Well, now Intel has apparently figured out how to get gold out of the old goose. Namely, it's found a way to fab highly profitable processors at the lower end of the cost spectrum. The trick to making a mint here, though, is that Intel's gotta stoke demand. That is, they have to create (pretty much from scratch) a real, and really big, market for the MID.

That is not going to be easy to do. Indeed, outside of the PC and cell phones (the latter being a market Intel largely doesn't participate in, processor-wise), no such humongous computing markets come to mind.

Which is why Gigabyte's MID is so compelling. It's a cool device which just might take off. So now I'm thinking that MIDs may not be so bad after all. Take a look at the Gigabyte MID, courtesy of this YouTube video from Intel. It was shot at the recent Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. What do you think?

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