One word – connectivity.

MIDs are hard to accept due to connectivity. when you get an iPhone, Instinct, N800 co-branded with the connectivity of a wireless carrier then it makes sense.

The secondary word is price. No one is going to pay for a MID even with connectivity for its price when a cell phone with internet capability costs less and includes the ability to make phone calls.

The third reason is upgrading. phone people don’t think twice on upgrading their phones for better features , faster processing, better data connect speeds; but a MID is considered a computer and if you want the HSDPA connection or WiMax the you would need to upgrade the MID at a substantial cost with hassle of transferring data. This does not even cover the fact of upgrading for the faster processors improved hardware. So it still come back to price with other things like form factor and battery life rounding it out.

Last thing to think about is repair. When you have a technical malfunction, drop, or obliterate your phone your down time is minimal and 9 times out of ten you get either a new phone (of the same type) or have the opportunity to upgrade to the newer one or change to a different phone entirely. Even buying a whole new phone is not very expensive. MIDs are computers and we all know we would never be able to easily, conveniently, or cost effectively be able to rebound from a catastrophic failure like a phone would.

Just some thoughts from a “consumer” point of view.

We saw phones and PDAs merge. We’ll eventually see phones become even more than they are right now.

Heck, we may eventually see the keyboard and mouse go away!
:D

Woadan

Linux is very scalable regarding power and functionality. Since many people still use Windows, it is hard for them to get what a particular device does and what not. Now, as a marketing person, try to get a clear message out.
I’m also not shure if putting devices in boxes like UMPC/MID/Netbook/whatever is going to work. You have to invent a new category for every device which takes new paths or just put it randomly in an existing one. Maybe most geeks lack an intelligible way of communicating to non-geeks.
Of course this might just be an additional barrier.

Methinks MIDs would/could still have a chance to win mindshare and marketshare if:

(a) They were easily available for purchase. Many were announced eons ago and are still not in channel.
(b) They were reasonably priced, say $ 200 – 400
(c) A portable foldaway keyboard (preferably bluetooth) were offered as a standard accessory. That is, for those without integrated keyboards.
(d) Battery life was ‘reasonable’. Many definitions apply here.

For me, I’ve found the perfect trinity. I use my iPhone for all-the-time anywhere access to information. I carry it everywhere and the combo of Safari and multitouch makes it ideal; I can do everything from banking to Wikipedia searches and more.

For on-the-go content creation, I have my HP2133. 2.2 lbs, 5 hrs of battery life, 160GB of space… it’s everything I need in terms for on the road content creation, which for me means text (screenplays, business docs, etc.), and it weighs so little I don’t even know it’s in my bag.

Then I have my dual-monitor, 4TB storage, quad-core desktop system for heavy lifting (video, Photoshop, etc.)

The thing is, this is an end-to-end solution base. There’s no room for a MID; the gaps are all filled.

Too expensive and too small screens.

The Techcrunch tablet (if it comes out) would sell like crazy.

Give me a letter sized touchscreen, instant on, decent battery and a price for under $200.
I would buy 3 as presents to family members.

Essentially the Amazon Kindle with a color screen, touch and no internet connection to pay for.

@david

im quite happy with my no-windows, no-phone N800.

but then im a geek/nerd that have no problem doing bluetooth pairing (i keep bumping into people that get the device lock pin and the bluetooth pairing pin mixed up for whatever reason), or other stuff like that.

the avarage human seems to be much better at plugging plug A into matching socket B (no wonder really, as its the kind of shape matching that we learn early on thanks to childrens toys), then keeping in mind that after bluetooth have been turned on at both sides and one initiate search for new devices on one of those, the pin being entered has to match on both sides for the paring to finish…

but then i also keep thinking that people would be better of with a network connected typewriter then a full computer most of the time (given the tasks performed and so on)…

trick is, how do one remove control while keeping the illusion of c

I agreed with this point of view until I went to Beijing, and I noticed people use MID devices on the train. So maybe they’ve got potential in Asia. But not, IMO Europe or USA

@rodfather

more like linux is unfamiliar to the wintel “gurus” out there that have spent their lives using visual studio…

In all honesty whom of you would of loved to have had a Nokia N810, makes calls and yet run windows xp on it to run normal applications?

Would you feel its still too big or just about as big as you would go on a portable device that can do it all?