iPhone as UMPC

[athiskemon]

I think iPhone will sooner not just be a phone but a UMPC,
I think iPhone from apple is the first Apple UMPC.
Because in the near future UMPC's will not just for entertainment
but also be become your ultimate communication device.
Just like the HTC shift umpc, which will feature a 3G phone.
iPhone is just like a UMPC because it has Mac OSX and its a phone...
only in the near future as iPhone becomes improvised and will
support some various softwares, iPhone will become a PC. Just
take a look at what Intel is planning to do with computers in
the near future.

[mjmoonwalker]

I don't think the iPhone has as many features or capabilities as most UMPCs out there. It's nowhere near that level of mobility. Personally, I think it's just as Apple advertised - an internet device and an iPod...oh and a phone. Not much more than your typical run-out-of-the-mill do-it-all phone.

[bobb-mini]

Should change ur name to Alvin Toffler Jr.

[Review]

The iPhone is probably partly Apple testing the waters in the UMPC space.

[Jesse Hollington]

I think it's reasonable to assume that the technology from the iPhone will eventually move into an expanded UMPC style device, but I don't think that the iPhone itself will become that device, as it fits a different niche.

Review's comments about Apple testing the waters are probably the most accurate here. Further, even though the iPhone required a great deal of R&D, a UMPC would require even more. Therefore, it's logical for Apple to release the simpler device first while they continue to work in the background on whatever the related products will bring forth.

I think it's most definitely fair to say that Apple did not expend 2 years of research and development solely to market this technology in a phone. I'm sure much of this technology is going to be implemented in related devices, likely starting with a next-generation iPod, and eventually moving into a UMPC space.

[Skwidspawn]

It's not too big of an assumption to think that Apple is moving towards a UMPC type device. The iPod has always contained a calendar and contacts. They added support for photos, then videos. Now they're adding mobile internet and communications. It's only a matter of time before they release a product that allows you to actually compute on the road, in a device smaller than a laptop. Unfortunately it seems that the technology to do so is both expensive and new. I wouldn't be surprised however if Apple had a UMPC in the works down there in Cupertino, I think a lot of college students, medical professionals, geeks, etc... would love to get their hands on a sub-$1000 machine that did 80% of what they use their home machine for, and it can do it anywhere.

Imagine what the battery would be like in a machine like that? There is definitely some innovation that needs to happen before UMPCs become truly viable.

[athiskemon]

I was right!

[bobb-mini]

Yeah - yeah, u get an extra pack of peanuts.

[PG4G]

This SDK makes the iPhone a UMPC as a snorkel makes me a fish.

Jut cos i can then breathe under water, doesn't mean I am a fish. I have too many other features that are not fishlike, like no gills.

Just cos I can load programs, doesn't mean I am a computer.

The iPhone has the POTENTIAL to be a UMPC. It however is mighty locked out to the point where it has no required capabilities to call it a PC, be it ultra mobile or what.

It requires no sandbocing to be a full computer, and that is out of the question as far as Apple is concerned.

[athiskemon]

Ok..
I did think too much about iPhone being as a Umpc...as a full blown one.
but still for me iPhone is a UMPC... but somehow for now only a sub/mini version, or we don’t know yet

Maybe Apple just made the iPhone to be a sub-UMPC, not a full blown one for now,
as what we think should a UMPC be... or it is the real Umpc.

'cause the full blown UMPC for now is more likely to replace or alternatives to laptops/notebooks/tablets I think...

And because the iPhone still depends on our main computers.... we need iTunes to organize and etc. and So some of us think it’s not a Umpc.

Or maybe Apple is going to release another kind of PC form factor/Gadget that we can say it is a Full blown one, where it will be a Sole partner to our iPhones... or maybe they won't, and just make the iPhone to be their ultra Portable PC.

And that Apple understands Umpc's in another way…that Umpc need not to be completely be, as what we see UMPC's now, and change our perceptions of what Umpc’s should be…

‘Cause in our minds for now a full blown UMPC is just going to be simply a very small version of our laptops/notebooks, that is independent to another PC and that it will have the same kind of OS running.

iPhone maybe Is what should a Umpc be... the perfect design for Ultra Portable Personal Computer.
'cause you know computers also evolves...

But any way what I think in the near future is that, cellphones, umpc's, camera's, games etc... will be made into one gadget, and as you can see it is happening right now...most high end phones now are becoming more like to be a mini PC.
And it will be most likely in the size of the iPhone, or a little larger depends on the market... and it's going to be a full blown one where what we can do to our pc now, we can also do it in the device.

[deftdrummer1]

I think you are on to something there atthiskemom. Apple has worked dilligently to radically change the landscape of whatever category devices they enter (or invent). This was true with their iMac computer lines and like some of you have said, this will likely prove true in the UMPC category as well. Heck, 12 months ago not a single device out there provided the capility the iPhone has. Posting to an online forum via cell phone like I've just done was unheard of. The funny thing is... Its still unheard of.