Windows Mobile headed for MIDs

What exactly this means is still out for debate, but according to ZDNet's All About Microsoft, one of new company hire Len Kawell's responsibilities will be to scale Windows Mobile to "new kinds of devices with larger screens and faster processors—also known as Mobile Internet Devices, or MIDs."
Previously with Pepper Computer, Kawell is also tasked with "defining the application model for occasionally connected rich Internet applications in the mobile environment."

What sticks out most in these two bits for me are the use of Intel's MID acronym (UMPCPortal's antennae shot up at this as well) and the phrase "occasionally connected," which seems to rule out cellular connectivity and suggests that these new WM devices will co-exist with smartphones. Considering the competition, how mobile do you think a MID can really be without HSDPA?

Comments

[Bruno]

Interesting... I would guess that "occasionally connected" does not rule out cellular connectivity but addresses the times when signal is not available, i.e. the difference between "working in the cloud" and having an application with online as well as offline capability.

[Jenn]

Good point, Bruno. It still seems like an odd choice of words, though, and not a very positive marketing spin. What happened to "always connected" with a little asterisk laden with the fine print? :-)

[Al]

Microsoft seems to have lost touch with the consumer market. What they need to do is enable jacket size computers designed with a touch type keyboard that can run full windows in a low power consuming internals. Windows mobile is not what people want. Consumers just want the same experience and ability to run applications as they already do on a laptop but we just want it in a clamshell jacket size version. The real gap that mainstream users want is a device to bridge between windows mobile type PDA's and smartphones to laptops. Windows mobile does not allow desktop applications to be installed and the MID and new mobile devices would be not to interested in an OS limited and pricey.

The problem was they were completey wrong with their vision with UMPC. That issue was most people want that full windows ccomputer to have a touch type keyboard and be small enough to carry everywhere.

MS should realize that for the mobile market we already have their limited OS Windows Mobile why would we want that on a MID? or other new mobile computers? Since the UMPC was a failure any new mobile device is going to use a different acronym to distance themselves from bad press. People just want a pocket laptop in their jacket pocket Microsoft.