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Microsoft introduces first MID installed with Windows 7 at Computex 2009

May 31, 2009 20:59

Computex 2009 is just a few days away. What kind of products or solutions will be showcased at this year's Taipei tradeshow? We definitely expect official announcements about the Arm-based Netbooks such as Ndivia's Tegra, TI's Omap or Qualcomm's Snapdragon. Some of the Arm-based Netbooks have been discovered by a few IT media already such as the Wistron Pursebook which comes embedded with Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipsets.

Any makers from Korea at Computex? Last year, a number of Korean manufacturers released their MIDs at the Intel showcase booth, such as the Viliv S5 and S7. Yukyung officially released its first MID called the S5 and has been doing a good job in the international markets, but it still needs to promote its products to increase sales, especially since the company is still very quiet in the local market.

It seems Microsoft and Viliv are working on some special event which will be shown at Microsoft's keynote address. Viliv will install Microsoft's new Windows 7 OS on its MID S5. This will make the Viliv S5 the first MID to support Windows 7 officially/

It's a great promotion for the company and better publicity than putting in lots of marketing funds. (Link.)

Yukyung has a number of inside projects after launching its first MID S5 on the market. It showed off the X70 Ex and S7 at CES and CeBIT, 7-inch MIDs positioned between the 5-inch MIDs and 10.1-inch Netbooks. Yukyung will introduce those three models at Intel's booth with all kinds of mobile communication modules embedded.

Here is a list of models it will display at Computex 2009.

1. S5, X70 Ex, S7 with embedded WiMAX modem at Intel's booth.


2. S5, X70 Ex, S7 with embedded 3G HSDPA modem at the Intel booth.


3. S5 with MS Windows 7 installed at the Microsoft booth.


4. S5, X70 Ex, S7 with embedded TD-SCDMA modem at the Vililv private room at Grand Hyatt.


5. S5, X70 Ex, S7 with embedded EVDO modem at the Viliv private room at Grand Hyatt.

Also, Yukyung will introduce its two new models during Computex, but the event isopen only to invited press and partners at the VIP room in Grand Hyatt.

The models are 10-inch and 4.9-inch unites, with the 10-inch seemingly similar to a Netbook-sized model with the form factor of the S7 which is a swivel tablet Netbook. Yukyung gave us some ideas on the 4.9-inch model which has a keyboard which was lacking in the S5. I guess this model is minor upgrade to the S5. The keyboard will be a sliding type rather than the UMID's typical laptop-style keyboard.

I will be at Computex myself on company business, but unfortunately, I won't be able to post more updates on the two new models since I wasn't able to get hold of an invitation letter. It seems the company's timetable is already packed with partners and press media. I hope Computex becomes a great opportunity for Yukyung to expand its sales and brand name overseas. I think one of its best strategies is its MID which is specialized for the Korean market. I call it the Korean standard MID. Korea has serious issues surfing the Internet and this holds the country hostage to using Windows-based PCs rather than Mac OS, Linux or Windows Mobile and Windows CE. Even Android won't appear in Korea, which is bad news for those who would really like to use Android devices for Internet purposes. This makes Yukyung focus its MIDs on Windows XP and this requirement has resulted in some of the highest hardware specs compared with the overseas version of MIDs. As we experienced, Linux-based Netbooks are cheap but still not good enough to use as a primary PC or laptop. It is a very difficult mission to find some software to install on a Linux-based Netbook as it just isn't as efficient as a Windows-based PC.

Let's see how Yukyung will grow its opportunities after Computex 2009 and what other Korean companies will be spotlighted at the tradeshow as well. I'm more excited about this than about the Android and Arm-based Netbooks that I will get to see at Computex because it's not just for me or the local market, I guess.

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