Despite Intel hype, Atom-based MIDs are a retail no-show

By Jon Stokes August 10, 2009

We recently went on a quest to actually find an Atom-based Mobile Internet Device (MID) or UMPC for sale in the retail channel, and we failed. So we turned to Intel and to professional channel watchers for help, and they failed, too (with the sole exception of a $2,500 Toughbook)—despite all the energy Intel has directed at hyping these form factors. What gives? Try to buy an Atom-based mobile Internet device (MID) or ultramobile PC (UMPC). Seriously, try Froogle or Pricegrabber and see if you can find an Atom-based MID or UMPC in stock anywhere. Without some serious digging, you're going to come up empty-handed, and this is true even for MIDs like the Archos 9 that were hyped in blog posts by gadget enthusiasts. As it stands in 2009, the much-ballyhooed MID/UMPC form factor is a total flop, despite the fact that Intel has been touting it as a core part of its mobile vision since 2007. Ars teamed up with retail channel data provider Dynamite Data to do an availability check across the online retail space for Atom-based MIDs and UMPCs. We went through a "MID Purchasing Guide" that Intel gave us and came up with very little to show for it, which suggests what many have suspected all along: the MID/UMPC is a solution looking for a problem.

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