Can an ARCHOS UMPC Succeed Where All Others Have Failed?
Although I purchased three Samsung UMPCs in 30 months, I’m objective enough to admit that ultra mobile PCs have generally failed in the mainstream market. For specific needs of particular types of users — mobile geeks like me — the UMPC has a place. It’s a light and highly portable device running a full desktop operating system. But poor battery life, high prices and ineffective user interfaces for interaction and text entry were all obstacles to UMPC success. ARCHOS is the latest to give this market a go with their ARCHOS 9 pctablet and Steve Paine shares his experiences with the device over at UMPCPortal.
Even before I read Steve’s review, I questioned the approach taken by ARCHOS by tweeting this thought six days ago: “Riddle me this Batman: why would ARCHOS design a Windows 7 slate tablet and pair it with Starter Edition, which doesn’t support Tablet bits?” Yup, ARCHOS is offering a Microsoft-powered slate tablet without native Tablet PC support in Windows. I don’t suggest that including a higher edition of Windows would make the device a “must have,” but the decision simply makes no sense to me. As a result, ARCHOS depends on third-party on-screen keyboards, which just don’t compete to native Tablet PC integration and handwriting recognition.
And this touches upon one of those factors that held back UMPCs — input methods and UI. Everyone seems to want a portable or pocketable PC so they run everything they run on their desktop or laptop. I understand that desire, but it comes at a tradeoff that continues to get overlooked. A small device isn’t meant for a large UI and the full-featured software people want to use on a small screen is designed for larger screens, not to mention different input methods. Even Microsoft quietly admitted defeat in this area by essentially abandoning the Origami Experience software.
Based on the hardware configuration of a 1.1 GHz Intel Atom, 60 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM and 8.9″ touchscreen display at 1024 x 600 resolution, I figured ARCHOS can offer more battery life than the UMPCs of yore. That’s not case though — Steve estimates up to five hours. I was actually able to get five hours of run-time on my Samsung Q1UP with its 1.3 GHz Intel Core Solo, but the battery was hefty — I’d estimate it weighed more than the device itself. By comparison the ARCHOS 9 weighs 800 grams with the battery, so it gains a point there. But the performance suffers as a result of this setup. Steve’s benchmarks show performance numbers less than half that of my nearly two-year old UMPC.
Image Credit: UMPCPortal
Want to run Firefox on this? Be prepared to wait 10 seconds before it starts and don’t look to use more than a few tabs, says Steve. Add in poor YouTube video playback and generally no luck at all watching a WMV-HD file (which works on nearly all other netbooks of today) and you wonder about the configuration choice.
Die-hard UMPC users and people enamored by the admittedly nice-looking ARCHOS 9 hardware at around $700 probably think I’m being too harsh. Before you tell me that in the comments, read Steve’s impressions — in particular his summary. He’s as passionate about the form factor as I’ve been, yet I can’t really find one positive comment in his wrap up. The ARCHOS 9 might sell to rabid UMPC fans, but for the vast majority of folks, it simply demonstrates that nobody has got it right just yet. Could I get one and run with it as a mobile office? Sure I could — I’ve already done that time and again. But most consumers won’t want the hassle of a folding Bluetooth keyboard and sub-netbook performance for more than twice the price of a netbook. There’s just too much compromise yet to revive the UMPC market. 2010 might be the year of the tablet, but probably not the year of the UMPC.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
We’re obviously yet to see whether 2010 will be the year of the tablet but IMO a tablet that doesn’t run a full OS like Windows is just as gimped as a Windows tablet that lacks the hardware to run the OS and all your software (or a reasonable selection of software) properly.
There are so many problems with tablets/UMPCs that it’s difficult to know where to begin. First of all the form factor itself is a problem because it’s so much harder to protect such a large screen without adding unwanted bulk in the form of cases – especially for something that is designed to be thrown into a bag and taken everywhere.
Then you have the crap hardware that goes into these things. Netbooks suffer from the same problem as well and it’s all down to the cheap, underpowered components that are used. Battery life is the real problem here (after all, that’s why you need the crap components) and I don’t think we’ll see anything really compelling without a substantial improvement in battery technology. In the meantime, users are left with computers that can’t even play a YouTube clip without stuttering.
Finally, I don’t see any tablet taking off unless it can run Windows. We’ve seen this with Netbooks and I think we’ll see it with tablets (whether they come from Apple, Google or someone like ASUS trying to flog another Linux-based tablet). What is the point of lugging something so large around if you can’t even run the software you are familiar with or have paid for?
Anyway, it’s a shame to see that Archos haven’t managed to do any better in this space than anyone else yet. Perhaps somebody will crack this one day but I doubt it.
By the way, have a great Xmas Kevin (and James if you’re lurking around here today :) )
You too, Jake. /Lurking off
caI think Archos should have just focus on the Archos 5 IT. It is a nice design, but with out inking in my opinion it wouldn’t be something I would buy. I have the Archos 5 IT and this little device is really great and very portable that can manage do what I need most of the time. It plays HD Videos, web browsing, gmail, google calendar, android market, and its very fast, with great battery life. Oh and also makes a good GPS navigation and when tethered to my phone I get traffic updates, weather and can look up info on anything I need. When I am done its easy to put in your back pocket.
MERRY CHRISTMAS.
I think Archos made a pretty bad decision based purely on the financial aspects and superficial research. See my blog post for more details :-)
http://mobilitypromise.blogspot.com/2009/12/input-versus-price.html
Just pay $80 for the win7 ultimate upgrade if you want the tablet features, or wait for Microsoft to include them in starter edition. This Archos tablet is expensive enough yet the best value Intel based tablet at $499, if they had included win7 ultimate, the cost would have been another $100 more at retail.
Charbax, that advice is akin to a company offering a car with three wheels and telling the customer to buy their own fourth wheel. ;)
All kidding aside, I have to ask this question: do you have any ownership or other financial interests vested in Archos? Everywhere I see any potentially negative info on Archos, I soon see your defense of their product — without fail or exception. Just curious. Thx!
A tablet won’t need a full OS. The ipod Touch and iPhone run subsets of OSX, and I’ll beta the iSlate Apple shows up with in January is closer to a Touch than an iMac.
I’ve also got the Archos 5IT and if it just had a few more capablities (which could show up as android apps) could replace any netbook I might have used before. Make it 7 to 9 inches, and add bluetooth support for keyboard/mice and printing and it would satisfy 95% of my non-desktop computing needs. Noreve makes a great case for it. Anything bigger than a 5″ tablet looses pocketability, and that scenario is something I don’t think any manufacturer has considered. Maybe they should all come with a reinforced lanyard attachment so we can hang them around our necks.