385 Million Ultra Mobile Devices to Ship in 2014 Nov 3, 2009

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ABI Research expects the Ultra Mobile Device (UMD) market, or the shipments of UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs), netbooks, MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and mobile consumer electronics devices combined, to reach 385 million units in 2014.

"Consumers and business buyers are only recently accustomed to the netbook feature set," said senior analyst Jeff Orr. "Regardless of vendor, the majority of today's netbooks ship with Intel processors and Windows XP into developed markets."

The report also said that developing markets will become the larger opportunity leveraging both ARM-based processors and Linux operating systems. The premium netbook category will also be established, offering larger screens and greater choices in connectivity solutions. Given little distinction today in feature-set and a relatively small price band, brands are differentiating themselves on aesthetics and build quality.

Pocketable MIDs remain a far more interesting product segment to watch, said Orr, as the market is still emerging. While the most common product design remains the tablet form, competing form factors such as models with slider keyboards, clamshells and touch-screen-only interfaces are gaining in usage.

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