Handtops, UMPC - Where are the Bold concepts? -

I bought my first Handtop because it was a bold, world changing idea of a device, even if it did not work all that well, all that often, and for that matter, for all that long. In spite of all that, it changed my world.

I was a relative latecomer to the Handtop party. I was first intrigued by the original concept of the FlipStart. When that had not arrived after a year or so, I bought an OQO Model 01+ instead. Since then I have owned a couple of different Handtops.

Why?

Because the concepts that drove these handtops were original, unique, outside the box and a signpost towards the future. It was this, as much as they provided a convenient way to have my office in my pocket, that was the attraction of these machines.

The size and format of the OQO - It was revolutionary when the model 01 came out. The power and connectivity of the Sony UX models, unequalled several years down the road, and the quirky dual screen design of the FlipStart with its Pentium M processor and touchpad, quite unlike anything else on the market at the time.

Then along came the Apple iPhone, the Intel Atom, and the (almost) New Great Depression, as well as hundreds of millions of “me too” Netbooks. Out went all the creativity, the bold new concepts and the risky ideas that, if they work, change the way things are.

Where are the folding keyboard designs that promised so much? Where are the pocket rockets that can take on the average Laptop and win? Where are those world-changing devices that were so tantalisingly close three years ago?

They seem to have vanished. What we have now is a collection of a whole bunch of rather good and getting better cell phones, a whole bunch of Atom driven Netbooks that are neither fish nor fowl, and don’t do much of anything really well, and some re-hashed ideas that in fairness could be called re-makes of previously successful designs.

Even Sony, who could possibly lay claim to the title of creator of the modern Handtop with their seminal U101 design have come out with a mid sized Netbook in an extra wide screen format as their current champion. Just not good enough! It might be a brilliant machine, but it is not inspiring, new or bold.

A few years ago, it seemed as though the Handtop would eventually split into two distinct lines, small units with great battery life but limited power, and slightly larger units with good battery life and lots of power. That has all changed. With the exception of a couple or three real handtop units, handtops seem to have split into two distinct lines, very small units with great battery life and almost no power at all called cell phones, and much larger units with ok battery life and not so much power called Netbooks.

So I am stuck with my two discontinued Handtops, and no realistic replacements for either of them. The UMID mBook M2 looks ok, nothing to write home about in the Bold ideas department, a sort of slimmed down FlipStart with an Atom CPU. The screen on the M2 is a bit too small for aging eyes, and once again the a Handtop manufacturer is guilty of a huge space between the edge of the screen and the edge of the unit. Why this wide frame? Use the space not for an optical mouse and buttons and the like, use it for screen. Pack more and more screen into less and less space, till the screen is almost the size of the unit. That in my opinion is the way to go!

I might be forced to give up on the whole Handtop idea if this trend of zero progress continues. So might a whole lot of other potential customers. As the cell phone becomes more powerful and capable, there will come a time where Handtops are squeezed out of the market altogether unless the manufacturers come up with some new, bold and innovative concepts.