Mike Cane wrote the initial posts that we consider the founding of the Internet Tablet Users blog (though he did it on a different website, in a forum and not a blog, and under a different name*). So when he goes off the 770, it’s worth comment.

I guess some people have called the forthcoming ultra-mobiles running Windows XP Tablet “overpriced 770s.” I myself have seen only one such comment, but it set Mike off on a rant that I guess first appeared at Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble’s site, Scobleizer, on March 9. (It’s reprinted in Reggie’s post from earlier today and at John Tokash’s blog.) Later on the 9th, I received an email from Mike with his comments, as did at least one other person I know.

I responded to them both with the following:

> A site such as Palm Addict takes *over two minutes* to
> load on a 770. I think it will be a few seconds on a
> UMPC.

I set up a stopwatch application on my PC and timed Palm Addict loading on my Nokia 770.

Loaded in seven seconds. Did it again. Six seconds.

I made one modification to my system that I advised Mike to make and offered to make for him. He refused. It eliminated memory issues causing slowdowns and crashes.

It would have made his system different from the off-the-shelf system users buy today. But it would have worked wonders for his blood pressure.

Since he won’t be recommending the 770 to anyone, and since he’s going to get rid of it as soon as he can, I don’t see why he cares if he has an off-the-shelf system or not. Does it make sense to you?

And I have a PostIt Notes program on my PC. It doesn’t slow down when it hits 10KB because it only accepts 800 characters. The Notes program on the 770 is not a lightweight text editor. There’s no lightweight editor on the 770, no matter how much Mike claims that Notes is one and badmouths it for being a poor one. Does the 770 need one? Yes. Why doesn’t it have one? Because Mike wasn’t the head of development, obviously.

By the way, if I took $400 or $500 more and added memory, faster CPU, a hard drive and Windows, then decided the device didn’t have to fit in my pocket and could weigh not 6 ounces but 32, I could turn a 770 into a UMPC.

So Nokia designed something different than Intel/Microsoft. Big deal. So Mike wishes he had waited for those companies to get their act together instead of opting for a less-expensive, less-capable device from Nokia. It will just take him a while longer to save up that extra $400-$500 to get what HE wants. Me? I’m not unhappy at all. I already have what I want.

The Origami/UMPC’s soon to appear fall into the same niche as the Nokia 770. They’re not intended to be a replacement for your desktop, laptop or PDA, but to enable web access and computer use at times and in places where it’s inconvenient, impossible or just plain awkward now**. So why does Mike Cane think 770 owners are badmouthing UMPC’s when it’s the other way round?

You know, I have seen lots of people saying UMPC’s are overpriced without mentioning Nokia 770’s. Me, I expect their prices to fall. These initial ones have everything but a keyboard — VGA and ethernet ports! — and when users realize they don’t use ultra-mobiles as laptops, those will fall away, I think. And the UMPC’s we’ve seen so far are huge compared to PDAs and 770’s***, but they’ll get smaller.

I say, Welcome, guys! Build the market, enlighten the public and make lots of money! It can only benefit the 770 and its successors as people who don’t want Windows, a bigger size or to pay so much find that the 770 suits them better than it suited Mike Cane.

* He moved his posting to itT when it was founded and asked me to take over his coverage, first on a temporary basis and then later declined to resume writing because of other obligations. Reggie Suplido, the itT administrator, and I changed the format and name soon thereafter.

** By “awkward,” I mean things like browsing on a PDA.

*** You can just about fit three 770’s within the outline of an 8.75 x 5.5-inch UMPC.