First Intel MID is available for ordering- over $1,000!
What’s the one single factor that must be met by MID producers to make sure that their internet device has even a tiny chance of succeeding in the market? Price, and dirt cheap. With full laptops now available with Linux for less than $500 the only way that MIDs have a chance to compete is to be at least as cheap as those other fairly small alternatives. UMPC Portal is reporting that TegaTech, Hugo Ortega’s retail outlet in Australia, has offered the first Intel MID for pre-ordering and the GigaByte M528 will set you back, sit down please, AUD1199! What components does this baby sport? It doesn’t freaking matter at a price far north of $1,000. They will NOT sell stripped down devices for double the price of an EEE PC. Not at all. Sheesh. Kudos to Hugo for being the first to offer an Intel MID and I hope you do well.
I personally think that $500 is the target price anyway, but like all products that emerge to a new market the company has to squeeze every bit of money out of the customer base (to cover setup costs etc… but mainly for greed I think). This means that the products will be ridiculously priced so that those who can afford the premium and are nuts about the product will pay up. Then when more products come onto the market the older devices get reduced to cater for the rest of us poorer folk. Give this 2 years and it will go the way of the mini laptop market. Remember that it’s a MID device not a UMPC (although I think they should be in the same category) and so counts as a new market from a marketing perspective.
That’s my take on this pricing madness anyway.
Gigabyte has priced themselves out of the market, plain and simple. They may think they are selling something that people would want to have, but they have to get people to buy them first.
They should have taken a leaf out of the Asus EEE’s book. People originally questioned the utility of a laptop with a small screen and small memory…but it was the price tag that got me to pull the trigger, and a lot of other (non-techie) people have too.
And finally, if its supposed to be a device that is complimentary to your primary computer, then it should at least cost less than your primary computer!
Oh, just one last thing: what makes the price even more ludicrous is that Gigabyte doesn’t even have the brand recognition to warrant such a price…even Asus had to build their brand before they could make the leap from motherboard manufacturer to computer company.
MIDs and UMPCs are like the sub-notebook category in that most consumers are not sure what the utility will be if they buy one. The EEE PC showed clearly that if the price is < $500 then the price point is low enough that they will take a chance on a new type of product. They use it then they like it. These will not get that chance at a high price point for sure.
How long has Hugo also been a retailer? All those other things he did for UMPCs now seems like a conflict of interest. Did I miss his disclosure somewhere or this retailing something new?
“Not at all” is massively inaccurate. I’m fairly certain that Hugo’s just trying to break even, at best, and that this is largely Gigabyte’s fault for biting off more than they can chew.
This isn’t just a portable system, it’s one with an unsubsidized 3G radio and the ability to (more or less) run every x86 app while fitting in your pocket. You’re looking at excessive bleeding-edge hardware with no subsidies. If this were to come out in the US in another 4-6 months, the price would drop a little, and you’d be able to trim off even more if the vendors can cut a deal with AT&T to subsidize the 3G in return for a data contract.
Of course, if you really want it to get cheaper, you need to cut down the bloat on the application side, too. Just because I can get a 4GB stick of desktop-class RAM in a box of Cracker Jacks doesn’t mean that I can get that same spec into a handheld. If XP can (barely) run in 512MB of RAM, then the OS needs a trimming, as do the apps. (This is, of course, why the MID spec points to Moblin and the like, it’s the only way to keep hardware costs down while optimizing performance.)
Regardless, at $1200, it’s not a failure, but it’s stuck up in niche territory. People will buy it. You’ll even see a community around the people who see an absolute need for it. It *will* sell, but it will sell poorly. This is the first wave, and just like the Sony U, the OQO 01, the Flipstart, and the Nokia 770, it’s pretty much only going to count as a test for the overall market. Some features will go away, some will be added, and the price will drop whenever possible.
I really don’t expect the MID race to truly kick off until the third generation, which will probably coincide with the fourth or fifth-gen UMPCs. Once the devices are all in place, the race will be to get the best performance in the smallest package (for the given size class,) all while hovering around the vaunted $499 price point. Right now, they’re all still struggling to find a form factor and minimum spec.
Mike: I also didn’t see the Hugo/TegaTech relationship until a retailer told me about it, but it has been there from the start.
Given current exchange rates, TegaTech’s prices are too high IMHO.