Intel explains: MID vs. UMPC

Today we had a chance to finally bring to rest the following question: what the hell's the difference between a UMPC and a MID. Fortunately, Dan Monahan, Intel's Global Internet Segment Manager of Ultra Mobility and the man who showed us (and the world) the UMPC for the first time at CeBIT took the time to set us straight. This is how it breaks down.

UMPC

• Business-class device for enterprise users
  
• Runs a "heavy" OS like Vista
• Optimized for office-use applications like Excel, Word, etc.
  

MID

• Consumer-class lifestyle device
• Runs a 'lightweight" OS with quick startup like Linux
• Optimized for things like media playback and web surfing
• In 2009 (or so) Moorestown-based devices will be classed as MIDs only
  

So there you have it from the man who knows. Now use the term correctly please, especially you dear OEM/ODMs.

[js @ Jan 10th 2008 6:03PM]

What an iPhone ripoff: both in function and form.

[waiownsyou @ Jan 10th 2008 6:07PM]

Seriously. What's with that Safari Mobile (iPhone) icon?!

[kepper @ Jan 10th 2008 6:08PM]

think before you post.
please god.
especially if you are going to post hate.

this article is discussing Ultra Mobile Pcs vs. Mobile Internet Devices (iphone is a MID with phone capabilities.) NOT IPHONE ALTERNATIVES

a lot of people are confused about the differences. (Ultra mobiles being, in layman's terms, a pocket sized laptop.)

[austin @ Jan 10th 2008 6:15PM]

keeper, that still doesnt explain that interface and icon that is apple all over the place

[Richard @ Jan 10th 2008 6:22PM]

Sorry but shiny crystal style icons on a black background isnt a hall mark of Apples iPhone, QTopia have been using this layout for over 4 years so dont throw stones in glass houses.

[quiksilv3r @ Jan 10th 2008 6:24PM]

Umm...large, easy to press buttons. Sure they look like iPhone buttons...there there aren't very many ways that you can make large, easy to press buttons without it looking like that.

[quiksilv3r @ Jan 10th 2008 6:25PM]

Umm...large, easy to press buttons. Sure they look like iPhone buttons...there there aren't very many ways that you can make large, easy to press buttons without it looking like that.

[Brandon @ Jan 10th 2008 6:25PM]

Does the Safari Web Browser icon & OS X's WiFI menu bar icon belong to QTopia too? Nice.

[austin @ Jan 10th 2008 6:26PM]

the safari icon, richard, the safari icon

[Richard @ Jan 10th 2008 6:31PM]

2 icons != rippoff, try harder boys. also were did the original code for Safari come from, oh yes Konqueror another QT/KDE product.

[Johan S @ Jan 10th 2008 6:55PM]

Look just cause it's touchscreen doesn't mean Apple should be the only ones allowed to make it.

Ideas Apple iPhone borrowed:

1. Cell phone
2. Having internet on a handheld device
3. Having maps on a handheld device
4. Having a touchscreen on a phone (besides the Prada one, there were other touchscreen phones that had buttons)
5. Having a camera in a phone
6. Having a calendar on a phone., etc.
7. Having high resolution displays on phones
8. Detecting and automatically switching to landscape/portrait when the phone is turned (myOrigo had this)

Ok, these may be lame to the fanboys .. but the fact is Apple didn't invent cell phones. And some of the ideas already existed. Sorry to burst people's bubble on that.

However, Apple was first to contribute certain ease of use ideas (multi touch etc.).. no dispute about that.

[bertbusdriver @ Jan 10th 2008 7:06PM]

The picture above seems more like a mock-up. For all we know, it could just be a GUI skin for a portable device created by an avid Apple fan.

[Jon Doe @ Jan 10th 2008 8:02PM]

Who cares. Its not an iPhone which automatically makes it 10x more useful and 10x less obnoxious.

[Jon Doe @ Jan 10th 2008 8:34PM]

THIS is why I'm dropping my Mac sometime this year. Beyond the fact that I LOATH Leopard with every fiber of my being. I'm so sick of being included in this group of things....That and the fact that my purchase contributed to the increase of that blowhard's ego. I'm sick of watching asshats get their dicks in a damn twist over copy this...copy that. ITS GOD DAMN ICONS!! Who the hell cares?!? GAH! I wish someone would just outright buy Apple and give all their patents away. The resulting heart attacks around the world from these religious Macnut freaks would solve the zealot question once and for all.

[E71 @ Jan 10th 2008 9:38PM]

If we can get ridiculously large amounts of storage (say, 160GB) on future MIDs and the processing power to handle 720p x264 video, I'm throwing away my Archos.

[Hung @ Jan 11th 2008 12:15AM]

Sarcastic responses to people calling this an iPhone-clone:

(1) So guys, I guess it's out of the question that this OS actually RUNS safari and isn't copying it.

(2) I don't believe Engadget makes mock-photos to use on their articles, so this has to be real.

(3) It can't be an iPhone, dumb-dumb; it's got Office capabilities!

(4) Microsoft needs to stop copying Apple. It's not as if both companies benefited themselves and the consumer by copying each other in the past, especially during the late 80's and early 90's. That's just boulder-dash.

[YourTechSupport @ Jan 10th 2008 6:17PM]

Ah. So... an n800 (which I just got, and love) would be a 'MID' then?

[web2.oh @ Jan 10th 2008 6:21PM]

Sounds like it. And an Oqo fits nicely under the UMPC definition.

Interesting to note that both of these devices existed before all this UMPC MID TLA marketing jargon came about!

[Eric @ Jan 10th 2008 8:33PM]

Yea, if the darn things worked!


(proud owner of an N800)

[YourTechSupport @ Jan 11th 2008 4:00AM]

Mine works. No real trouble yet that wasn't my own fault.
A good place for advice is http://internettablettalk.com,
helped me through alot it. I have the new 2008 OS, VNC, Pidgin, it's all good.

[David @ Jan 10th 2008 6:31PM]

I'll be honest, I'm confused by the Apple icons being used... And I couldn't care less about Apple but confused none the less. Can't people make their own interesting icons anymore. I know it's probably a concept design but the only good icons from the picture are Apple icons.

[Mark @ Jan 10th 2008 6:35PM]

Bah. Those are just characteristics. What about a physical definition? I mean, don't tell me that a lot of these 2-hour battery life Via Eden processor UMPCs are "business class" devices for enterprise users.

Anyway, UMPCs were available before Vista was out anyway- so much for the "UMPCs run 'heavy' OSes."

Yeah, there will always be machines which cross boundaries (like the OQO- out before UMPCs, not really a tablet even if it does have stylus support (I think)).

Would taking a UMPC and putting a "lightweight" OS on it like linux (sounds like flamebait right there) make it a MID?

Not that it really matters- it just reminds me about the whole angst decades ago over calling the things either "laptops" or "notebooks" (likewise with "palmtops," "handhelds," "transportables," etc.)

[FRZ @ Mar 4th 2008 1:29PM]

I thought the same thing. Why does running windows on it make it a UMPC vs a MID. It must be because sine the origami they had made and called it an UMPC was a collaboration with mirosoft. IDK

[beya @ Jan 10th 2008 6:40PM]

A genre of product defined solely by the software it uses?!

My understanding thus far has been that an ultra-mobile-pc is one defined as a 'computer' which can fit into your pocket regardless of the OS or applications it runs.

[Jeff Lewis @ Jan 10th 2008 6:43PM]

I think the Intel rep left a few things out. The UMPC spec also covers some of the hardware requirements and, for example, requires that it have an x86 processor (which is why calling an Athena a UMPC is incorrect - it uses the ARM processor) and it has to have a touch screen of between 5 and 7 inches (which eliminates the Cloudbook and Eee).

Don't get me wrong - I love the Eee and Cloudbook - but they're neither UMPCs nor MIDs... we need a new term just for them, although ultraportable laptops is good, except that for some reason, people have started calling 12.2" laptops 'ultraportable' when they're really not that much more portable than 13.1" ones.

[Mii @ Jan 14th 2008 8:11PM]

These have been called "Palmtops" forever. Look at the Toshiba Libretto line, for examples in that size and format.

[bob @ Jan 10th 2008 8:47PM]

i think the requirements for umpc have morphed. generally eeepc and cloudbook are now considered umpc's even though they dont have a touchscreen. if you actually look at the words "ultra mobile pc" it fits quite well. the touchscreen aspect seems to now be just another specification within the category.

[debugy2k @ Jan 10th 2008 6:43PM]

MID = "pocket pc" type device...

[Al @ Jan 10th 2008 7:09PM]

with memory 8gb or more.

[Dr Buzz0 @ Jan 10th 2008 7:10PM]

I'm not entirely sure that anyone in "business" really wants to use word or excel on something like that. Most business users of mobile devices use them for email, contacts, sending text messages and possibly stuff like looking up airline schedules and that sort of thing.

yes, the business environment does use excel and word and that sort of thing but that's not really the sort of thing that ANYONE wants to do on a pocketsized device whether pro or consumer. That is where full sized laptops come in because writing a quarterly report on something that size is going to be an exercise in misery...

[ozzzy @ Jan 10th 2008 11:34PM]

Exactly, this is why I say UMPC/MID, who cares? No one is going to buy these things mass market anyways. Has anyone actually tried using a UMPC? It's painful.

[Christian @ Jan 10th 2008 7:58PM]

So if we timewarp that definition by a year from now to the past, it almost sounds like the difference with laptop and cellphones... just a thought...

[SteveS @ Jan 10th 2008 7:58PM]

Intel is clueless. A fully capable browser is and has been for a long time an essential "office-use" application. If these companies keep thinking web surfing is only a casual, entertainment related activity then we'll keep getting these craptastic browsers in our mobile devices that we are currently plagued with...

[Mark @ Jan 10th 2008 8:15PM]

That screenshot is based on the MID found at this link: (I'm crossing my fingers that the link actually appears.)

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/08/hands-on-with-aigos-iphone-ripping-menlow-based-mid/

[Dave Findlay @ Jan 10th 2008 8:44PM]

No-one else finds the man's job title's acronym amusing?

[Hany Hanna @ Jan 10th 2008 8:44PM]

If it sports XP it should be called a UMPC. If it has Vista it should be called a UMPA...Ultra Mobile Pain in the Ass.

[mark @ Jan 10th 2008 11:18PM]

I think that they should be classified by the system architecture. x86 compatible processors or or PPC but i dont know any mobile devices that use that, should be classified as UMPC's because they are real computers and you can run just about anything on them. I think mobile internet device should be reserved for devices that use ARM processors cause you cant exactly throw windows XP, Vista, or most flavors of linux on that. Who else agrees that my hardware definition is better than their software definition.

[Art @ Jan 10th 2008 11:32PM]

What about Nokia Internet Tablets?

[zen @ Jan 24th 2008 9:49AM]

my point exactly Nokia already has a MID on the Market and does it not strike you as funny intels unit uses the same GUI icons in the top right as Mokia Chinook/Maemo IT2007 but with bolted on iphone/itouch icons on the bottom of the screen.

Looks like Intel just wants to be one of those knock off chinese units....

[Yubastard @ Jan 11th 2008 1:05AM]

I'd like one primarily to program and make music on the go... (visual Studio C# and Fruity Loops) Does that make me an Office user? Enterprise user? I'd like myself an UMPC. Some more power would rock, u know, and graphics... everything will coalesce, game consoles, cellphones, PCs... interesting times ahead, for sure. Singularity FTW, lol

[Yubastard @ Jan 11th 2008 1:06AM]

I'd like one primarily to program and make music on the go... (visual Studio C# and Fruity Loops) Does that make me an Office user? Enterprise user? I'd like myself an UMPC. Some more power would rock, u know, and graphics... everything will coalesce, game consoles, cellphones, PCs... interesting times ahead, for sure. Singularity FTW, lol

[Yubastard @ Jan 11th 2008 1:07AM]

damn bugs in the comments! >:(((

[mcgillnicholas @ Jan 11th 2008 1:31AM]

MIDs will save us all. Live long and Linux. Finally products that actually empower consumers and give them hope of custimization on an open platform. iPhone just got shoved off the desk for my n810.

[Steve Dood @ Jan 11th 2008 4:13AM]

Well, this thread only goes to show that the people that are so quick to say "just cos its touch/just cos it has icons doesnt mean they copied Apple. Gosh, Apple weren't the first blah blah bloody blah" are the ones who haven't even seen an iPhone in real life. If you had then you would have noticed that the Browser icon is identical to the Safari icon on the iPhone. I would even go as far as saying that the Media icon's bg color is the same as the iPod icon's bg color on the iPhone...so there.

[Ayle @ Jan 11th 2008 9:15AM]

Skin.

[Sascha @ Jan 12th 2008 6:12AM]

"So there you have it from the man who knows. Now use the term correctly please, especially you dear OEM/ODMs"

that Intel guy seems to me a little bit... let's say off the track ;)
What's next? Someone is going to tell us what is an OS and what not?
Or this is a Smartphone and this is just a cell...?

geeez this is just god damn funny ;)

[FRZ @ Mar 4th 2008 1:56PM]

I need a MID.