As we already know, the fasting growing sector of the computer market today is the newly created UMPC / MID / Mini-note sector and now we have some numbers. Gartner Inc is reporting that worldwide mini-notebook shipments will reach 5.2 million units in 2008 and 8 million units in 2009. Gartner is also predicting that mobile computing devices and the mini-notebooks market is expected to experience strong growth with as many as 50 million mini-notebooks shipped in 2012. Gartner’s Annette Jump said the demand for mini-notebooks is driven by several factors, including screen size, weight, price, ease of use and their basic, but sufficient, PC functionality.However, Gartner has not taken into account the rise of truly smart phones like the iphone and soon to be released Google’s Android hand sets. Most teenagers can tell you, people are looking for a “tricorder” type devise that can do it all, phone, camera, organizer, net browser, document processing, and email all while fitting in a pocket. A device that you can put in a cradle with external monitor and keyboard / mouse at your home or office but carry with you and use on the run. With Android’s open architecture, truly productive applications for handsets should be available by next year that we believe (WoW-PoW) will overtake the rise of the mini-note category. Sadly the Apple iphone, while selling exceptionally well, has missed the boat so far with their awful selection of software available at their App Store and their short sited policy controlling third party application development. Let’s hope Steve Jobs sees the light when Android turns up the competition.
