The Ultra Mobile PC’s have come out, with five different manufacturers releasing their models by the summer and more to follow. Welcome to the party, guys!

To my thinking, comparison with the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet emphasizes not only that all these devices occupy somewhat the same space and that a lot of people want the carryaround 800-pixel screen with a non-crippled OS, but also that there are clear differences in what Internet Tablets and UMPCs are aiming at and who they are marketing to. The design of the UMPC shows that forgoing a keyboard was as far as Microsoft was willing to deviate from the standard portable PC. (No other explanation, is there, for that VGA port and ethernet connection on a WiFi device.) And what really is the sweet spot as far as size is concerned? Eight inches? Or five and a half inches? Book size? Or pocket size?

Robert Scoble, the MS blogger has a video interview of Otto Berkes, the Origami architect and now general manager of the UMPC group at Microsoft. In it Berkes states, “The target was not the pocket.” With the 770, the target clearly was the pocket. You can see from the picture of Berkes above how much bigger today’s UMPC is*. I guess we’ll see which size proves the most popular.

More immediately, I think the UMPC’s arrival will lead many websites to become friendlier to the 800 x 480 screen. That’s something that truly will benefit us 770 users.

For one thing, I’m looking forward to Google designing pages optimized for this size screen (maps, gmail). Somehow I have the feeling this wouldn’t come as fast without the UMPC opting for 800 x 480 too.

* Future versions down to the size of a Nokia 770’s 5.5 inches have been promised.

Thanks to jkontherun for pointing out the Scobleizer video.