Coming Soon: Apple iPod UMPC
Honestly, it doesn’t sound like much of stretch. The iPods already support video and can run Linux. Turning iPod into a UMPC seems like the next logical step. Rick Segal (who has a great VC blog), has some interesting news: Apple dropping their current chip supplier for Samsung could be showing us their roadmap. The current chip is good for media related apps, but the Samsung chip could be used for a full-blown UMPC.
Affordable UMPCs could change everything. Palm devices are nice organizers, but their media capabilities are weak. The Archos and Cowon devices are awesome multimedia devices, but have no business apps. Even with their monsterous hard drives, they probably don’t have the hardware for productivity tools or a browser. The top of the line device from Archos, AV700, costs $600, while the latest UMPC supporting Microsoft XP from Samsung (nice to see Samsung covering both sides) costs $1099 from Best Buy. Can Archos or Cowon add the right tools for non-multimedia apps? Maybe, Apple might be better suited to take on Microsoft UMPC platform.
With the 60GB video iPod costing $399 from Apple and Apple already making an OS, they should be able to make a competitive UMPC for less than $1000.
Apple and Microsoft going head to head again? What were the chances?
