The Pipeline: Pundits pick on the UMPC

Welcome back to The Pipeline, a weekly feature where we dig through the mainstream media and see what the pundits, prognosticators and and pencil pushers have been discussing over the past week.

Last week, the media piled on the Nintendo Wii, more or less agreeing that the name left just a little something to be desired. This week's target: Samsung's Q1 UMPC, which went on sale today. As much as we'd like to say somebody actually liked the Q1, the mini-tablet was panned across-the-board, from The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, who called it "so deeply flawed in key respects that it amounts to little more than a toy for techies," to BusinessWeek's Steve Wildstrom, who commented that "buyers would do better to step up to an ultralight laptop or down to a PlayStation Portable or a handheld media player."

Elsewhere in the media, WNYC radio's Leonard Lopate sat down with Giles Slade, author of "Made to Break," to trace the history of product obsolescence from Henry Ford to Steve Jobs (what, you thought it was an accident that your iPod dies just as a hot new model hits the stores?). Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times checked out the "Into the Pixel" exhibit of video game art, while that city's LA Daily News, checked out the celebs at the star-studded Helio launch, including Milla Jovovich and Chloe Sevigny. We assume the glitterati showed up largely for a chance to get a free Kickflip, though we suspect most of them could afford the phone, even at its $250 price tag.

The New York Times: A big question unanswered by a tiny PC
The Wall Street Journal: Two tech leaders aim for bold new portable, but miss the mark
The Washington Post: Turning a miniature into a lightweight
AP - Tiny PC carries a small load of annoyances
BusinessWeek - An itsy bitsy problem

WNYC - Made to break
Los Angeles Times - The fine art of the video game
Forbes - Helio heats up handheld lifestyle
Los Angeles Daily News - Hello, Helio

[bob @ May 7th 2006 5:13PM]

ill wait till apple does it properly.

[Michikal @ May 7th 2006 6:48PM]

cuz appel iz bedr den all, yo. dey nevr mes up, evn thamrl past

[Silver @ May 7th 2006 7:26PM]

And yet another hardware manufacturer falls on its sword for a half-baked Microsoft fantasy...

[AndyB @ May 8th 2006 5:48AM]

We were musing on this item in a reason business meeting (i.e. the pub) and we all generally agreed that a consumer product it would bomb. However, I think it may great potential as an EPOS product, the price comparing favourably to existing systems.

[Silver @ May 8th 2006 11:16AM]

"I am really excited about this product!"

Translation: I'm buying one of these turds just so I can pimp my UMPC site (domain for sale!) and spam as many boards as possible.

[pixelator @ May 21st 2006 7:20PM]

"ill wait till apple does it properly."

You mean it'll become a portable heater/coffee warmer like the latest MacBooks? Or a scratchprone overly-delicate, laggy paperweight like the video iPODs?

[rotten_fruit_fan @ May 23rd 2006 8:40AM]

Bad reviews? Yes
Expensive? Yes
Bombed? No

The Q1's are all sold out. The Eo's as well but those are probably getting returned on account of some battery life issues.

Me? I'm waiting for Asus and ECS to see what kind of CPU power and prices they'll use.