Who will make UMPCs in 2008? Sprint has loose lips

I know we hit up some WiMAX news earlier today, but I just read Sprint's official press release regarding plans for WiMAX.  You can read the full release right here, but I want to highlight one tidbit that I almost missed:

"PC manufacturers Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba have expressed intent to embed WiMAX into their next generation Intel Centrino-based laptops and ultra mobile PCs in 2008, so these devices can connect with the Xohm WiMAX network."

Now when I look at that list of computer manufacturers, only Asus has a current entry in the UMPC space. Granted, I could be reading into this too much but is it possible that we'll see a UMPC offering in 2008 from one or more of the other players named? Regardless, the whole prospect of WiMAX is sounding more appealing to me by the day. I'll also go out on a limb regarding the idea of an Apple PDA: if we see it, it won't be until next year and I suspect it will have embedded WiMAX (Baxter Peak) like the next Nokia Internet Tablet. That rids the device of any cellular ties to contracts, won't cannibalize iPhone sales, and will offer fallback to standard WiFi along with Intel processing power.

Comments

[D]

"laptops and ultra mobile PCs in 2008"

keyword: laptops

[devwild]

You are reading too much into it, but at the same time intel did recently announce panasonic as a mid/umpc partner, so there may be something coming from them.

[Steve Paine]

Aigo, Clarion, Fujitsu, Harman-Becker, Hitachi, Lenovo, LG Electronics, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, and Toshiba were all mentioned as companies 'expected to bring products' And in fact, this is only the companies that agreed to go public!

Can't wait for a sleek LG product.

Steve.

[Mike Cane]

I wouldn't read anything into that. Probably written by a PR flack who has zero IQ when it comes to tech. (Really, you wouldn't want to see that guy's PC Desktop!)

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Actually, there's some confirmation from an Intel press release that Steve covered last week via IDF. Here's the link: http://www.umpcportal.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=920