| Pundits weigh in on Atom-based MIDs |
Apr. 08, 2008
 After last week's unveiling of Mobile Internet Device (MID) prototypes based on Intel's Atom Centrino chipset, the pundits are weighing in. At ZDNet, Dana Blankenhorn blasts the whole lot as "ugly" while at TechNewsWorld, Rob Enderle calls the new Linux-based Lenovo MID an "iPhone killer."
(Click for larger view of Lenovo's MID prototype)
For the main course of the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Shanghai, China, last week, Intel served up five versions of the Atom Centrino chipsets due to arrive this quarter. Much of the attention, however, was on the dessert: a showcase of some two dozen MID prototypes based on the Atom Centrino, most of them available with Linux (see images below). Since there were few details about the internal design or performance of the prototypes, the press focused on external design and styling, and in some of the more advanced cases, GUIs. None of these factors are insignificant, the two pundits suggest, in a consumer electronics world increasingly dominated by stylish i-gadgets from Apple.
In his ZDNet blog, entitled "What mobile Linux is missing," Blankenhorn answers his own question right off the bat, stating that the MIDs on parade in Shanghai are "uglier than Bette Davis in 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'" He adds, "This is a serious problem, not just for Linux but for anyone hoping to compete with Apple in the device market." Blankenhorn does not, however indicate what it is exactly about the tablet-like hybrids that offends his aesthetic sensibilities.
        
Atom Centrino devices from...
(L-R, from top) Aigo, Asus, BenQ, Clarion, Compal, Electrobit, Lenovo, LG, Panasonic
(Click any to enlarge)
In his TechNewsWorld opinion piece, "A Linux device that could beat the iPhone," Enderle concedes that MIDs are challenged because they are larger than the iPhone, which is itself hefty by cellphone standards. Yet he suggests that large may not be bad for such feature-rich devices. "I've often wondered," he writes, "if most people wouldn't actually be happier with a device that was a bit larger and more capable for video and e-mail than the iPhone currently is."
The Lenovo prototype, expected to ship this quarter along with MID prototypes from Toshiba, Panasonic, and LG Electronics, is the "best of the lot," Enderle writes. He goes on to note that the device (pictured at top and in the gallery above) has "an interface that could actually be better than the iPhone's." Enderle has always believed, he writes, that "the way to make Linux successful in the consumer market was not to emulate or chase Microsoft, it was to beat Apple, and this is the first time I've seen a product actually try to do it." Unlike most of the prototypes, however, the Lenovo lacks a keyboard, which Enderle says may be "critical for this class."
Availability
Blankenhorn's ZDNet rant is available here, and Enderle's mash note to Lenovo can be found here. The MIDs, however, are still a month or three away.
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