Intel's mobile push serves up new labels for old lamps

INTEL HAS FINALLY gone on record to clear up the naming confusion over its multiple lines of handheld computers.

The firm unveiled the Ultra Mobile PC concept (UMPC) a couple of years ago, and has since taken some stick - the initial devices from Samsung et al weren't exactly great, especially since battery life was crap. This year at CES, Intel was talking up its Mobile Internet Device (MID) concept, first unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum last year.

Cynics have pointed out that the difference between the two platforms appears to be very small indeed - and have speculated that the MID is just a rebrand of the UMPC in an attempt to escape the initial batch of bad publicity.

But not so! At least according to Intel's Dan Monahan, the man in charge of Chipzilla's Ultra Mobility unit. There are differences! Certainly. He reckons the UMPC is aimed at business users and features Vista, and is optimised for Office apps. The MID, on the other hand, is a consumer device with a light Linux OS optimised for media and web surfing.

These appear to be very tenuous distinctions, especially since the functionality and usage models are clearly overlapping - not to mention the fact that most consumers are preferring mobile phones for media and web on the go, and are unlikely to pick up another device when they can get an all-in-one (Iphone, N95, etc.).

Meanwhile, business users don't spend their entire lives in Word and Excel, and are likely to want web and media functionality for the amount of money they'll have spent on such a device.

Given that many of the MID devices on show at CES aped the Iphone interface pretty shamelessly, one can't help but wonder if Intel is just trying to create an Iphone-like OEM design. Why not just concentrate on getting Menlow chips into the Iphone instead? µ