HTC Advantage and HTC Shift

I have always been surprised why the UMPC (Ultra-Mobile Personal Computer) business isn't sweeping the nation the way that cell phones and MP3 players. After all, businessmen and women (especially the self-employed) travel a lot, and those laptops can get pretty heavy after a while. I suppose that many cell-phones have UMPC capacity, but do you really want to compose your greatest masterpieces on a screen smaller than a breadbox (actually, smaller than a half-piece of bread).

Of course, we are in the age where people are adapting to the small screen on their cell, and I think that the next generation would not mind watching a full-length feature film on their 2 inch screen. However, do you really want your UMPC and your cell phone on the same unit? What if you want to talk and use the UMPC at the same time?

Perhaps the time is right for a company to corner the market on the UMPC. It looks like HTC is making some strategic moves to be the king of the UMPC the HTC Advantage and HTC Shift.

The HTC Shift has a 7 inch screen, which is considered gigantic in the Mobile world. The keyboard of the HTC Shift can be adjusted so it is parallel to the screen like a smartphone, or it can slope upwards like a laptop. The HTC Shift also has a 30GB hard drive, Bluetooth 2.0, and Windows Vista. I'm not certain how much mobile phone capacity the HTC Shift has, but the HTC Shift includes a Biometric reader, complete with a front-facing camera. Of course, no electronic device is complete without Wi-Fi capability, and HTC Shift is built for Tri-Band UMTS/HSDPA as well as Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE.

The HTC Advantage has a very unorthodox keyboard/screen attachment using magnets. As far as I know, the HTC Advantage is the first mobile device that can deliberately separate into two parts, which could lead to problems of losing one of these sections. The HTC Advantage VGA touchscreen is 5 inches, and is capable of bright video playback without a hitch. The HTC Advantage also sports 8GB of hard drive, 256 MB RAM, a GPS navigation, miniSD card slot, and Windows Mobile 6. Like the HTC Shift, the HTC Advantage is capable of both Quad-band, 3G, and Wi-fi Connectivity.

Both the HTC Advantage and HTC Shift should be available this summer. So far, there is no word on who is going to be their carrier. I would suggest that Cingular, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless will all put in their respective bids, and will make more money than they already make.

We could be looking at an era of the UMPC. Don't be surprised if you join the revolution.